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NATURE AND MAN 



SOLOMON OLIVER OSBORN 



Author of "Analysis of the Retail Trade," "Ready Per Cent and Price 

Marker," "Man : Body, Mind, and Soul," and 

"Nature and Man," etc. 



Entered According to Act of Congress, in the Year 1910., 
SOLOMON O. OSBORN, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at 
Washington, D. C. 

Entered According to Act of Congress, in the Year 1911, 
SOLOMON O. OSBORN, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at 
Washington, D. C. 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



Franklin Hudson Publishing Company Press 
Kansas City, Missouri 



Index. n^V^EA 

Publishers' Introductory '. v fA\ 

The Author's Letter to the Public 3 

Xature — The Agencies of Creation 5 

Co-Works of Man and Xature 8 

Beauties of Physical and Mental Xature 10 

Wonderful Government of Xature 13 

Alphabet of Moral Laws of Xature 19 

Moral Laws of Xature — What They Are 21 

The Material Man — The Human Body 34 

Physical Heredity — Its Wonderful Powers 4? 

Table Foods — How Used by the Body 51 

Physical Appetite and Hunger oQ 

Periodical Sleep — Science of 57 

Mouth-Breathing and Damaging Consequences 60 

The Wonderful Mental Man— Mind 61 

Mental Heredity — Wonderful Powers of 68 

Mental Foods— Mind Food and Effects 71 

Mental Appetite and Mental Hunger 81 

Mental Laziness and Ignorance 85 

Mankind Is Good Naturally, Afi Was Made 86 

Mental Corruption — What It Is 95 

Perversion and Perverts — Cause and Xature of 98 

Homes and Their Environments 109 

Sneaking Home- Wreckers — Satan Can Go Xo Lower 130 

Human Character- Valuation Is Too Low 136 

Hands Off— Self-Control, etc.. etc 116 

Love — Wonderful, Marvelous Love 165 

Love Is One's Worst Enemy or Best Friend 172 

Courtship — Ways of, and Consequences 178 

Marriage — A Co-Partnership; Promotes Human Welfare.. 187 

Astonishingly Eapid Increase of Small Savings 199 

The Valuation of Unnecessary Things Is Too High 211 

Mental Capital — Sources, Xairit, Value and Xeed of; The 
Ladder of Knowledge ; Pigmies, Mediocrities, Stalwarts, 
and Giants; Comparative Wealth in Money Capital and 
Moral Capital; Climbing Evidence of Merit; Three 
Kinds of Mental Capital; Moral Capital the Xational 
Xeed, and How Obtainable, etc., etc 217 

©CI. A 30 73 
f 



NATURE AND MAN. 



PUBLISHER'S INTRODUCTORY. 

Solomon Oliver OsBORN,the scholar, traveler, in- 
vestigator, and author, has given the past ten years 
of his life to a very successful effort to benefit hu- 
manity, considered from scientific, moral, social, fin- 
ancial, and Christian view-points. 

While the countless multitudes of humanity were 
busy at the works of innumerable occupations, pro- 
fessional and unprofessional ; while many were study- 
ing the mercantile business and became merchants, 
and others medicine and became doctors, and while 
others studied the laws of the governments of men 
and became lawyers, and yet others (a multitude) 
were most concerned in games of amusement — the 
author of this book was studying humanity and the 
laws of the Government of Nature, and wrote this 
and several other books: It is a practical, system- 
atic treatise on Nature and mankind — physical, men- 
tal, moral, civil, and social, including many important 
facts and figures obtained during the author's eight 
years' travel. 

Neglecting to study the laws of Nature affecting 
humanity, and failing to see and recognize the Gov- 
ernment of Nature, men, women, and their chil- 
dren constantly violate the physical, mental, and 
moral laws of their own nature — which are some of 
Nature's laws — and suffer many severe penalties. 

Eight Years' Travel. 

The reliability of Mr. Osborn's representations of 
conditions of humanity — physical, mental, moral, 
and social — is fully verified by the things that he saw 
and learned during his recent tour of one hundred 
thousand private homes and more than two thousand 
hotels, boarding-houses, and rooming-houses, and 
gives the readers of this book valuable information 



B NATURE AND MAN. 

obtained by the author at a cost of eight years of 
time and thousands of dollars. 

Ignorance of Nature's laws and of prevalent ab- 
normal mental conditions is weakness; knowledge is 
power, but moral or immoral, which depends uoon 
the character of the love that governs it. 

The mental light and moral principles of Mr. Os- 
born's new book, "Nature and Man," inform, fore- 
warn, forearm, fortify, and protect its readers against 
all sorts of deception, pretension, hypocrisy, and 
fraud. 

The many readers of Mr. Osborn's books will be 
pleased to hear that he is physically active, and 
inspired by mental ambition, energy, and zeal not 
exceeded by men of half his years, as you can per- 
ceive by the lively tone and spirit of his article 
entitled "Mental Capital" (see page 217), which he 
wrote in A. D. 191 1. 

''Nature and Man" is a most interesting and 
suitable book for any man, woman, boy, or girl. As 
a present, there is no other article of equal value at 
five times its cost. 

Franklin Hudson Publishing Co. 

Kansas City, Missouri, 
September, 191 1. 



In good cloth cover, by mail, $1.10. Agents wanted — men and women 
everywhere. Address all orders to Solomon Oliver Osborn, Aledo, Illinois 

A book by return mail on receipt of postofficc money^order [for $1.10, 
payable to the author, at Aledo, Illinois. 



AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE PUBLIC. 

Friendly readers of this book will be pleased to find in 
it a biographical sketch of the author. 

The starting out, when in my "teens," to work for support 
and to extend my education and manhood, without the aid 
of money and influential friends, was not less favorable than 
that of another young man with his head full of vanity and 
love of pleasure and his pockets filled with money and thous- 
ands at his command from a wealthy parent. No, I was not 
nearly so poor as he, because I had a mother — a plain, old- 
fashioned mother — who had carefully filled my head with a 
sort of capital far more important to genuine success than 
money. She had armed me with stout and influential love 
of right; and, to guard and defend this love, so necessary 
to human welfare, she also had trained up in my mind a 
powerful soldier, who she knew would back and defend the 
sort of love with which she had filled my head. The trusted 
soldier was hatred of wrong. By premeditated and persever- 
ing efforts, mother had penetrated my inmost soul and there 
enkindled and cultivated unyielding hatred of wrong. (See 
"Co- Work of Love and Hatred.") 

And now, after so long time, I remember, as though it 
were but yesterday, that when the time came for me to go, 
mother followed me to the open door of the clean little home 
in Sauk City, Wis., in the year 1856, and, after her final good 
counsel, bade me good-bye. 

My mother was English, born in Westmoreland shire, Eng- 
land, in 1804. She was Miss Mary Washington, a daughter 
of Anthony Washington, a distant relative of General George 
Washington. My father was Daniel Osborn, born on Long 
Island, New York, and died in 1849. He was a school-teacher 
in his early manhood; later, a merchant. I was born south 
of Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana, in 1838. 

My first activities of the kind were in a stove and tinware 
store at Madison, Wis., in 1856. Thence to Whitewater, Wis., 
first in the general store of Warren Cole and later in the drug 



store of B. G. Noble, who soon thereafter was Lieutenant- 
Governor of Wisconsin. Thence to Milwaukee, Wis., in the 
dry-goods store of T. A. Chapman, the noted prince merchant. 
Thence with Dr. H. Rosengarten (druggist), Indianapolis, Ind. 
Thence with J. W. Hannaford, E. S. Emerson, and S. L. Hay- 
den, three drug firms of Cincinnati, Ohio. Then two years 
manager of a general store, followed by marriage and owner- 
ship of stores and branch stores at Sabula, Ames, Webster 
City, Iowa, and other towns. I erected the second store build- 
ing in Ames, Iowa, and conducted in it the second store; this 
was in the fall of 1865. 

Having brought up a family of boys and girls while en- 
gaged with the activities of business affairs, yet always have 
I felt a keen desire, a ceaseless anxiety, to resist whatever 
damages humanity. Finally, having quit business to devote 
the balance of my life to such work, I published five editions 
of my book, "Man: Body, Mind, and Soul." While distrib- 
uting said book, I saw the public need of another book, its 
subjects to be based entirely on such facts as are proven by 
present-time observation and experiences; and, to be sure of 
having such facts, I have just completed eight years' travel, 
analyzing and studying the social and other conditions affect- 
ing humanity as I found them in more than two thousand 
hotels and boarding- and rooming-houses, and at exceeding one 
hundred thousand private homes, distributed over a large 
per cent of the States. 

An inspiring, stimulating, and governing love of genuine, 
uncorrupted, pure, and adorable humanity, supported by an 
intense, antagonistic hatred of all the vile influences and works 
of mental corruptions, has controlled my mind and affections 
during the past ten years, fully eight of which I have zeal- 
ously devoted to almost ceaseless study of conditions affecting 
humanity, all the while influenced by great anxiety and de- 
termination to benefit the human race; and this book is the 
result of the vast amount of physical and mental work which 
I have done toward accomplishing my object so long coveted. 
Yours in the cause of humanity, 

Solomon O. Osborn. 

Kansas City, Missouri, July, 1910. 



NATURE AND MAN. 



NATURE IS THE CREATOR'S AGENCIES 
WHICH CARRY ON THE MARVEL- 
OUS PROCESSES OF 
CREATION. 



A World of Agencies. 

Many people entertain vague and very -unsatis- 
factory ideas about Nature, and as to its source; 
some even supposing that there never was a crea- 
tion and beginning of Nature. 

Webster's definition is: "The agencies which 
carry on the processes of the creation." In this 
definition are several important implications. It 
implies that there is a Creator, and that the works 
of the Creator are being carried on by agencies. 
"Agencies" implies agents. An agent is one who, 
or that which, works for another, who is the prin- 
cipal. It is implied also that the Creator has de- 
creed agencies to continue His works. "Processes 
of|creation" implies that works of creation are be- 
ing done by His agencies. 

Thus Nature may be defined briefly as being 
agencies created by an omnipotent Creator to carry 
on the processes of creation, all working in accord 
with physical, mental, and moral laws of His will 
and decree. 

Wherefore, co-work with Nature is, as it were, 
co-work with the Creator, or, more directly, with 
His decreed agencies. 

The Agencies of Creation. 

The lakes, seas, and the great ocean are some 
of His agencies giving the earth the weight neces- 
sary to hold it in its decreed circles and water- 
supplies for all the lands. 

Drops of water, sun, heat, evaporation, the at- 
mosphere, and the clouds are some of His agencies 



6 NATURE AND MAN. 

for watering the earth: heat to evaporate, atmos- 
phere to raise evaporated water up and form clouds, 
and the winds (moving atmosphere) to carry the 
clouds (which are water in very small particles) to 
places where water is needed. And the springs, 
creeks, and rivers are His agencies for collecting 
and returning the waters back to the lakes, seas, 
and ocean. 

Under and in accord and harmony with the 
Creator's physical laws governing production, the 
elements of the ground — of good soil — and a kernel 
of corn are some of the Creator's agents for creating 
more corn. He created the first corn. 

When a kernel of corn is covered with soil of 
lawful temperature, the process of creation begins 
with germination, and a corn plant is created, then 
the cob, and finally the corn. This is a process of 
creation from the commencement of germination, 
and on and on to the completion of the cob, and 
lastly the perfection of the corn. 

In the beginning He personally created one tree 
of a kind, and He decreed and imparted to every 
tree its own peculiar nature, else all trees would be 
of one and the same nature. And He decreed that 
every tree shall bear seed that will produce trees 
of its own kind, else it would not do so. And He 
vested in the seed of trees creative power — power 
to create trees each of its kind, else they would not 
do so. Therefore the seeds of trees, together with 
soil, water, heat, etc., are His agencies for the crea- 
tion of trees. 

And He declared physical laws to govern all in- 
animate, vegetable, and animal agencies; laws which 
subject some of the animal agencies to certain phys- 
ical restraints that take the place of human reason, 
not possessed by animals. 

And He decreed both physical and moral laws 
designed to restrict and limit the creative powers 



NATURE AND MAN. 7 

of mankind — for the mutual welfare of His human 
agencies and their creatures. His human agencies 
are, of course, the far more important of all His many, 
many creative agencies. The moral laws, including 
the seventh commandment, are designed to restrain 
his agencies from misuse, and to punish for abuses 
of the most sacred power entrusted to humanity. 

And the Creator said unto the Man and his wife, 
whom He had created: "Be fruitful, multiply and 
replenish the earth." This is a command which 
clearly implies and clearly means that they are per- 
sonally vested with full power so to do, a power to 
be used only in conformity with the moral laws, 
which He decreed. * 

Not only the elements of the ground, but every 
living thing, in its normal state, whether vegetable 
or animal, is an agency (an agent) of the Creator, 
by which, in accord with physical laws (decreed by 
the Creator), more of its kind is created. And thus 
the wonderful, marvelous works of creation are car- 
ried on and perpetuated by the agencies of the Om- 
nipotent; agencies in which are vested marvelous 
creative powers (invisible, incomprehensible pow- 
ers), the works and fruits of which we easily see, 
but not the power. 

Any abuse or misuse of the powers entrusted to 
mankind is severely punished by Nature's moral 
and physical laws. If the Creator were personally 
continuing the creation of mankind, no bastards, 
illegitimates, and monstrosities would be created. 

Sneaking, immoral, vile, and adulterous uses of 
the sacred powers entrusted to mankind have cor- 
rupted, demoralized, and degraded millions of the 
human race. It would be a sin to charge the Cre- 
ator with any personal part with sinful men and 
women in the vile, sneaking, and adulterous crea- 
tions of mankind. 



8 NATURE AND MAN. 

The largest, most prodigious, and most sacred 
trust ever bestowed on mankind was in vesting him 
with creative power for the perpetuity of humanity, 
governed by moral laws. 



CO-WORK OF MAN AND NATURE. 



Man Utterly Helpless without Nature's 
Kindly Co-Work. 

There are millions of good people who do not 
perceive the co-work of man and Nature, as it is, 
and who have not recognized Nature as their in- 
dispensable and most faithful social and business 
partner and their ceaseless co-worker. And many 
there are who are dull, stupid, ignorant, and neg- 
lectful partners. 

As a co-worker Nature is doing the difficult work 
requiring superhuman knowledge, wisdom, and cre- 
ative power that as far exceed the knowledge, wis- 
dom, and power of man as man's exceeds that of 
the quadruped brute. 

Nature, as man's co-worker, does only such part 
of any work as man can not do, leaving other work 
for human hands and physical forces, directed by 
knowledge such as man can acquire. But man can 
acquire no knowledge without the co-work of Na- 
ture enabling him to think, comprehend, and mem- 
orize. Oh, how helpless then is man without the 
co-work of Nature! his ever-present, devoted, faith- 
ful, loyal, but silent friend, without whose ceaseless 
co-work no man could live a minute. One may 
swallow the purest and most desirable food; but, 
in case Nature should fail to work in accord with 
her physical laws, the food would remain undigested 
and life soon would be extinct. 

The farmer boasts that by his skill and good 
cultivation he produced forty, fifty, or seventy-five 



NATURE AND MAN. 9 

bushels of corn per acre. But, in|fact, Nature pro- 
duced the corn. The farmer planted and cultivated, 
and Nature, smiling on his co-work, made the corn 
germinate and grow, and created the stalk, the cobs, 
and the corn. The farmer, without the co-work of 
Nature, could not produce a bushel of corn or any 
other grain, to save his soul. He may have in 
barns, cribs, and granaries thousands of tons of hay 
and grain, and springs and brooks of pure, spark- 
ling water, and ten thousand head of cattle, swine, 
horses, and sheep. But all his stock would quickly 
perish were Nature to frown and cease to co-work 
and change the food elements and the water to 
bone, flesh, and blood. 

A surgeon can draw the gaping, bleeding flesh 
together by a few stitches; but he can not heal and 
cure the wound. The healing is the difficult part, 
requiring superhuman power. Nature, ever pres- 
ent, will smile upon the doctor's skillful effort, and 
heal the wound. See, after man has done all he can, 
how entirely dependent he is on Nature's co-work. 

Farmers and other men interested in breeding 
and raising cattle, horses, sheep, swine, poultry, etc., 
have boasted that by their knowledge of Nature's 
physical laws governing animal-production they have 
greatly improved all species of farm animals in size, 
form, activity, strength, etc. ; but, in fact, it is Na- 
ture, the agent of the Creator, kindly co-working 
with men, that has improved the animals on the 
farms. All the learning, knowledge, art, science, 
and wisdom of men would bring no satisfactory re- 
sults if Nature were to refuse to do the improving. 
Farmers, gardeners and fruit-growers plan to im- 
prove grains, fruits, and flowers; but it is Nature 
that does all the work of actual improvement — 
work that men can not do. 

>It is only when man conforms his work to the 
laws of Nature that the wonderful, marvelous ere- 



io NATURE AND MAN. 

ative powers of each agency of creation kindly co- 
work with man for the improvement of its kind. 
And it is so, too, of mind. Boys and girls may go 
to school and study diligently, but unless Nature, 
co-working with them, manipulates their thoughts 
and faculties of reason, comprehension, memory, 
etc., they will acquire no knowledge. 

One can easily see some of Nature's marvelous 
works in things of matter — material things. Her 
works in things of mind, her mental works and laws, 
are as numerous and even more marvelous than her 
physical laws, as I will show in other pages of this 
book. 

MARVELOUS BEAUTIES OF7PHYSICAL 
AND MENTAL NATURE. 



Evidently Planned and Created to Please and 
to Delight Mankind. 

In the study of the marvelous works of Nature 
one can easily see not only the Creator's personal 
admiration of things beautiful, but also His love 
of humanity; as is clearly shown in the designed 
beauty of much, if not all, of the works of Nature, 
as well as in their adaptability to please and delight 
mankind. 

To my mind, the exquisite beauty of Nature's 
works as seen in the handsome coloring, shaping, 
scalloping, and notching of foliage, and in the mas- 
ter workmanship in flowers and in their charming 
colors and sweet and delightful odors; and in the 
matchless, inspiring, 'glorious hues in the paintings 
and shadings of the feathers of some birds, which 
have never yet been equaled by the brushes and 
paints of men and women; these, and a thousand 
other beautiful things, are abundant proof of the 
love and the willful intent and premeditated, de- 



NATURE AND MAN. n 

liberate design of the omnipotent Creator to attract, 
interest, and please a people whom He loves, and 
they are mankind. 

Always surrounded by many of Nature's innu- 
merable things of beauty, we become so accustomed 
to her wonderful productions, specially designed to 
please mankind, that we pass unnoticed, or tram- 
ple under our feet, things which ought to be appre- 
ciated far more highly for their exquisite beauty, 
and reverenced as sacred proof of the Creator's love 
for and endeavor to please humanity. If girls and 
boys never saw a tree in full leaf until in their 
"teens," the marvelous beauty of its hundreds of 
limbs and thousands of scalloped and notched leaves, 
' no two exactly alike, would make them frantic — - 
fairly wild, with admiration and delight. Neglect 
to see and heartily admire and appreciate the charm- 
ing beauties of Nature, and to recognize their source, 
is a gross irreverence towards the Creator, and a se- 
rious mental damage to everyone who fails to see in 
these the positive proof of the Creator's love of and 
willful design to please humanity. Study and ap- 
preciate the marvelous works and beauty of Nature. 
Even mankind (the material man), a product of 
processes of Nature since the creation of Adam and 
Eve, may be classed along with pretty things; as, 
comely, good-looking, pretty, handsome, beautiful, 
and fascinating. There are, of course, among so 
many of Nature's men and women, some with home- 
ly faces; but so surpassingly beautiful are the moral 
principles (each a law of Nature) that, when one 
sees peering through the eyes of a homely face a 
mental man (or woman) of moral principles, all the 
unfair and profitless thoughts of the face are ob- 
scured, and the face looks comely (even pretty), 
and is lovable because of the mental beauty of its 
owner. 



12 NATURE AND MAN. 

The reader will know that this statement is true; 
and it illustrates the excellent and greater power 
of mental beauty. The physical beauty of form 
and face will grow old, fade, wrinkle, and cease to 
attract and charm; while the beauty of moral prin- 
ciples and of a pure and loyal heart (mind and af- 
fections) grows more attractive and more lovable 
on and on throughout a long lifetime. 

It would seem, in view of the marvelous beau- 
ties of physical Nature, that the Creator, who made 
Nature, had reached the climax of beauty-conception 
and beauty-making when He planned and created 
the things which have been mentioned. But, in 
fact, He had not nearly exhausted His exhaustless 
conceptive and creative capacity, as is proven by 
other things that He created, which, to a normal 
mind, are far more beautiful and more fascinating 
than all the beauty in the world of material things. 
They are moral principles — the beautiful elements 
of good character. These greatly exceed and far 
surpass, in their charming beauty and merit, all 
of Nature's wondrous beauty in things of matter. 
Not nearly one-thousandth part of the beauty of 
moral love is equaled by all the beauty of Nature's 
things of material; nor one -thousandth part so beau- 
tiful as honesty; nor one -thousandth part so charm- 
ingly beautiful as moral friendship; nor nearly one- 
thousandth part the beauty of moral purity; nor 
nearly equal one -thousandth part of the exquisite 
beauty of fidelity and loyalty to moral obligations. 

In short, a just and right appreciation and val- 
uation of mental beauty would put a stop to wrong, 
and bring a realization of man's highest concep- 
tion of attainable purity, welfare, and happiness, 
on earth. 



NATURE AND MAN. 13 

THE WONDERFUL GOVERNMENT 
OF NATURE. 



Seen and Known by Analytical Study 

of the Marvelous Works of 

Its Agencies. 

Every man is a citizen of two governments, of 
the most powerful of which most men are grossly 
ignorant; they are the government of Nature and 
a government organized by men. Each of these 
governments has its laws and its loyal and its dis- 
loyal citizens. Disloyalty to a good government 
may be one of the results of ignorance of the good 
nature or character of its laws. There are millions 
of people who are disloyal to the government of 
Nature because they are too ignorant of the nature 
and the good effects of its laws to be good citizens. 
Good citizenship and loyalty to a government are 
the results of appreciation and sincere love of the laws 
of one's government. Therefore extensive knowl- 
edge of the laws of one's government is necessary 
to enable a person either to love or hate his govern- 
ment. No intelligence without knowledge. 

A man who respects and obeys the laws of his 
government is loyal. But the man who opposes its 
laws, in trying to defeat their enforcement, is a 
traitor. 

The governments of men are local and limited 
as to the extent of their territory and authority, 
because of the agreements between men and na- 
tions as to the divisions of lands, waters, and the 
authority of government. But the government of 
Nature is universal as to territory, and its physical 
power and moral authority extend over all lands, 
waters, matter, and mind. 



14 NATURE AND MAN. 

There always are some bad citizens who dislike 
any sort of restraint, either moral or physical. They 
dispute the right of any government to restrain them 
from such personal freedom as does directly or in- 
directly damage other people. There are many men 
and women who seem to have little or no knowledge 
of the mental laws of the government of Nature, 
and only endeavor to avoid punishment under laws 
enacted by men. It is of first and vast importance 
to the individual and to the general public that ev- 
eryone recognize the presence and power of Nature's 
mental and moral laws, aside from the physical. 
The unavoidable infliction of Nature's punishment 
following a violation of her laws is proof of the 
existence of her government and of present-time 
enforcement. 

From the beginning the Creator, no doubt, had 
devised and decreed a sort of automatic or self- 
enforcing government over all to be created; over 
the world itself, and the moon, the stars, the sun — 
in short, over everything, whether inanimate mat- 
ter, vegetable, animal, spiritual, or mental, a gov- 
ernment of Nature, governed by His decreed laws. 

Could the earth, the moon, the sun, or one of 
the big stars become disloyal to this mighty gov- 
ernment of Nature, and rebel and depart from the 
Creator's laws, some of which govern these gigantic, 
monster subjects, there very likely would be a ter- 
rific crash, a strange and awful noise, and possibly 
the world, together with its billions of people, would 
be destroyed. And about the millionaires. As the 
Creator is no respecter of persons, all their lands, 
railroads, ships, fine mansions, and costly furniture, 
and all their money, bank accounts, and bonds, 
would be destroyed. Oh, awful, horrible for the 
millionaire to contemplate! But don't worry, as 
all these monster objects are governed by the mighty 



NATURE AND MAN. 15 

laws of Nature, as easily as a mother governs the 
small child that climbs upon her knee. 

The actual existence and the effective force of 
the government of Nature is proven by the presence 
of millions of visible convicts — millions who are suf- 
fering penalties which are "visited upon" them as 
punishment for violating her laws. The millions of 
people of every color, name, and nationalty are sub- 
jects of the government of Nature, and the farthest 
off ends of all the earth are the only limits to its 
jurisdiction in the world. 

Well I remember the powerful awakening of my 
youthful mind when I learned that, under Nature's 
law of contraction by cold and expansion by heat, 
water expands by cold and freezing instead of con- 
tracting. My attention to this remarkable excep- 
tion to the general rule of cold contracting other 
things, as showing the wonderful wisdom of the Cre- 
ator, in reversing the rule in the case of water, evi- 
dently to keep rivers and lakes from becoming solid 
masses of ice, greatly interested my young mind. 
Perceive, if ice were water contracted, it would be 
denser and heavier than its bulk of water and would 
sink to the bottom of lakes, ponds, and rivers, which 
would become solid masses of ice. 

If the principle (a law of Nature) violated per- 
tains to material, as to anything of matter, tangible 
and having weight, a physical law has been violated; 
if to something immaterial, mental, or spiritual, a 
mental law has been violated. Thus the govern- 
ment of Nature punishes the material man when an 
offense is against a physical law designed to protect 
and govern his body and limbs; but punishes the 
mental man when an offense is committed against 
a mental law — a principle or rule of Nature — de- 
signed to govern and protect his mind. (The men- 
tal laws are explained under proper headings in oth- 
er pages of this book.) 



1 6 NATURE AND MAN. 

We are told that in the beginning men and women 
lived to the age of seven or eight hundred years. 
As the penalties for violations of physical laws, dis- 
eases were inflicted upon man and increased in num- 
ber along with the increasing number and ways of 
violating Nature's laws, and are transmitted by in- 
heritance to his children; thus enforcing Nature's 
law that the sins of parents shall be visited (in- 
flicted) upon their children, down to the third and 
fourth generation. 

Miscellaneous Laws of Nature. 

The normal nature of man and the natures of 
all the different species of animals, vegetables, min- 
erals, etc., are laws of Nature; the specific nature 
of each species is the law designed to govern that 
species for which it was decreed. Wherefore laws 
of Nature are physical, mental, and moral princi- 
ples and rules, in accord with the normal natures 
of the agencies which carry on the processes of cre- 
ation. The natural, uncorrupted, and unperverted 
nature of any one of the agencies of creation is a 
law of Nature, and concerns that agent whose normal 
nature is in accord and harmony with it. 

When, how, and by whom the first man and the 
first of other species were made or came into exist- 
ence does not now affect or in any way change the 
natures of the species, nor prevent correct analyses 
of man, as he now is. Mankind is one of the species 
distinct and very different in his mental nature from 
all others; and his normal, uncorrupted, unperverted 
nature is the law of Nature, which he must respect 
and obey, or suffer Nature's penalties. 

No Sort of Speculation. 
I desire not to discuss either the origin of man 
or his future state in this book. As such subjects 
are by many regarded as speculative, I am con- 
vinced that a treatise on man, as he is, will do far 



NATURE AND MAN. 17 

more good for humanity. Wherefore, instead of 
anything that can be called speculation, the reader 
will find both physical and psychological analyses 
of mankind; analyses and elucidations of normal 
and abnormal human nature, etc. 

Truth is the representation of things as they are; 
and it is the sacred mission of the author to tell 
the truth, and lie not. Yes, the truth — things as 
they are — based upon facts that have been demon- 
strated and fully proven by the experience of mil- 
lions of people of each succeeding generation, during 
thousands of years now past. 

As the government of Nature repeals none of its 
laws, and as it is no respecter of persons because 
of wealth or poverty, therefore 

Millions Are Suffering Penalties. 

Any principle or rule of conduct that when ob- 
served benefits the observer, and when violated usu- 
ally damages the violator, is a law of Nature. One 
may know what is a law of Nature — of the govern- 
ment of Nature — by the penalty which follows the 
violation of a certain principle, and may know the 
penalty by its following the violation and punish- 
ing the violator of an established principle. Any 
principle or rule that can not be violated without 
disturbing the normal or natural and harmonious 
course of Nature is a law of Nature. 

Proof of what is one of Nature's laws is the 
harmful disturbance of Nature's normal conditions 
following a violation of any principle or rule of Na- 
ture. The disturbance is the effect of error, and 
both the penalty and the proof that a law of Nature 
has been violated. 

Eating, drinking, and sleeping are three physical 
laws of Nature, and each is a principle that can not 
be violated without some harmful disturbance of the 
normal condition of the physical man. Every me- 



1 8 NATURE AND MAN. 

chanical, scientific, mental, psychological, and moral 
principle is a law of Nature. Mechanical principles 
belong to the physical laws, and concern material 
or matter. Mental and psychological principles be- 
long to mental laws, and concern and affect mind. 
Moral principles relate to the moral laws of Nature, 
aside from such as are purely intellectual, physical, 
or secular, and uphold whatever is right morally, 
and oppose everything that is wrong morally. 

Anything and everything impure, unclean, or in 
any way defiled in human nature is an abnormality, 
and entirely foreign, unnatural, and out of place. 
The cleanest, purest, and, to an unperverted mind, 
the most attractive, fascinating, and lovable thing 
in all the world is the purity of each and every 
normal element in the make-up of genuine human 
nature. The enormous, priceless value of normal 
human nature, and its liability to corruption and 
perversion, made the necessity for the moral laws 
of Nature, to shield and protect the excellencies of 
humanity against corruption and defilement. 

Millions of people are now being severely pun- 
ished for violations of Nature's laws, many of whom 
do not recognize the law and the penal nature of 
their afflictions. And yet it is a fact that for vio- 
lations of Nature's physical laws, sickness and death 
have been the visible penalties paid in millions of 
cases. And no fewer number of people are being 
punished during this life for violations of Nature's 
moral laws. All punishment by the moral laws of 
Nature is, in fact, self - infliction, or punishment 
which a person brings upon himself by violating 
his own normal and genuine nature. This is true, 
because every man's genuine nature is good and 
pure morally and in accord with Nature's moral 
laws. 

The omnipotent Creator who made the first man 
also planned and decreed his nature, and it was good. 



NATURE AND MAN. 19 

Man's normal nature is, therefore, a law of Jits~Cre- 
ator; and, consequently, man can not a "do r "anything 
wrong morally without violating his own normal, na- 
ture, which is a law of Nature. Perceive a man of 
perverted and immoral nature, and there are many 
such, is not genuine, but a pervert and a fraud on 
people who take him as a fair sample of genuine 
human nature. Comprehend, the Creator having 
decreed and imparted to the first man his specific 
nature, he can not put it off and assume another 
nature without violating both the will (law) of the 
Creator and his own normal nature. Wherefore, by 
violating his own true nature man defiles himself and 
is utterly disqualified for decent company, either in 
this or in a future world where purity governs. 



ALPHABET OF THE MORAL LAWS 
OF NATURE. 



What It Is. 

The letters of a language are its alphabet. Al- 
phabet is the inclusive name that embraces all the 
letters of the language. Wherefore the word alpha- 
bet, though but one word, includes in its meaning 
and has reference to many words. 

As the English language includes twenty-six let- 
ters, a child, to know this alphabet, must^first be 
taught each of the twenty-six different letters, one 
at a time, until he knows every one by its peculiar 
shape and its name. Each letter of a language is 
necessary to its alphabet, complete; and each let- 
ter is necessary in co-operating with other letters 
to form words, which, in conjunction with other 
words, form sentences. And bear in mind, an al- 
phabet does not refer to any one, two, or more of 
the letters of the language, but to all its letters 
collectively. 



2o NATURE AND MAN. 

This clear and concise statement of the mean- 
ing and nature of the word alphabet will aid me in 
explaining clearly the meaning and nature of the 
oft -used word morality, which I now denominate and 
christen to be called the alphabet of morality or the 
moral laws of Nature, because this word (morality) 
stands for each and all of Nature's moral laws. 

Few people (but a small per cent of the mil- 
lions) fully comprehend the meaning of this com- 
mon word morality. While the word alphabet in- 
cludes and stands for all the letters of a language, 
this little w r ord morality is the alphabet of and in- 
cludes and stands for all the moral laws of Nature; 
and does not refer to one, two, or more of Nature's 
moral laws, but to all, collectively. Though but 
one word, it includes in its meaning and has refer- 
ence to many words — names of moral laws. It in- 
cludes all moral principles or law T s. Every moral 
principle is a moral law, and every moral law of 
Nature is an element and part of morality — of what 
the word morality, as the alphabet of the moral laws 
of Nature, represents. 

Perceive, every letter of the English alphabet is 
an element of the whole alphabet, and likewise each 
moral principle or law is an element of a whole, 
entire morality. While the noun alphabet of a lan- 
guage stands for all its letters, the noun morality 
stands for all moral law. 

It takes all the twenty-six letters to constitute 
the one entire alphabet of the English language, 
and so, too, it takes all the moral laws of Nature 
to constitute complete morality — the alphabet of 
Nature's moral laws. As a child does not know 
his alphabet until he knows the twenty-six letters 
by their shapes and names, so, too, men and women 
do not know the alphabet of Nature's moral laws 
until they can cite or recite each moral law as read- 
ily as a bright boy or girl who knows says his or 



NATURE AND MAN. 21 

her A, B, Cs. How poorly educated — how very lit- 
tle a person knows of his language who does not 
know its alphabet! His limited knowledge fairly il- 
lustrates the comparatively limited knowledge that 
another person has of morality, who does not know 
and can not cite the alphabet of Nature's moral 
laws. 

Perceive, there are too few competent teachers 
of the alphabet of morality. No person can learn 
the letters which constitute the alphabet of a lan- 
guage without a competent teacher, and no per- 
son can acquire an intelligent, timely, and practical 
knowledge of the many moral laws which consti- 
tute the alphabet of the sacred laws of the govern- 
ment of Nature without a competent and persever- 
ing teacher who knows each and all such laws. As 
all good laws enacted by men accord with Nature's 
moral laws, no sort or manner of teaching, except 
a thorough, timely, practical, and comprehensive 
(extensive) moral education, will make loyal citi- 
zens of any good government. 



MORAL LAWS OF NATURE ARE THE 
ELEMENT OF MORALITY. 



Love of the Elements of Morality Is the 

Foundation of Business Honor and 

Social Decency. 

The moral laws of Nature are the Creator's agen- 
cies for protecting the loyal and punishing the dis- 
loyal, and are as necessary to mental purity and 
social decency as the air which we breathe is to 
physical life. Each, mental purity, business honor, 
and social decency (virtue, chastity), has its basis — 
itsjmental foundation — in mind; a foundation con- 
sisting of sincere love of all the principles of morality. 



22 NATURE AND MAN. 

Ardent love of the elements of morality, of all 
moral principles — a love based on firm and enlight- 
ened belief in their good influences and lawful na- 
ture — is the one and only foundation worthy of re- 
spect and confidence. 

Moral Laws and Christianity. 

But hark, listen! Someone is saying: "No; it 
is love of Christ that is the necessary foundation." 

I certainly will place no straw to interfere in 
any 'way with the freedom and good work of gen- 
uine Christian love, but am for the truth — things as 
they are. 

Any love of Christ, or of Christianity, not found- 
ed on moral principles — the elements of morality — 
is a dangerous deception and fraud upon humanity. 
Take the elements of morality out of any system 
of religion, and it becomes a deceiving fraud that will 
be extensively used by perverts, reprobates, and 
hypocrites to mislead, deceive, cheat, and rob igno- 
rant, stupid, and confiding (trusting) people, who 
are so easily induced to believe in the lying pre- 
tenses of polite and nice-appearing scoundrels. 

Any love of Christ not based on His direct and 
indirect upholding of the principles of morality is 
as poorly founded as a house built on loose and 
moving sands, that will be blown away by the winds. 
It is fraudulent Christianity — without inspiring love 
of the moral laws of Nature for its foundation, that 
has defiled and lowered the only true standard of 
Christianity, and brought discredit and reproach up- 
on many thousands of its modern professors. 

Hark! It is faith in and love of morality that 
cleans and purifies a Christian's mind. And the 
more thorough one's moral education, and the greater 
his knowledge of the beautiful nature of each and 
every element of morality, the better will he be. 



XATURB AND MAX. 23 

I believe in Christianity. No one of uncorrupt- 
ed mind can doubt that the professors of Christian- 
ity, as a class, are the best people on earth. 

Remember that the moral laws of Nature are 
the elements of morality — and that love for all these 
is necessary to social decency. Without belief and 
faith in and sincere love of all the moral laws of 
Nature there is no foundation for honor in business 
matters, and no foundation for purity of mind and 
virtue or chastity in social affairs. There are no 
men and women worthy of confidence, either busi- 
ness or social, who do not believe in and love the 
elements — all the elements — of morality. No, there 
is not one, not even one such person, who can be 
trusted in business, or in society, without danger 
of betrayal. 

Ah, truth, sacred truth — things as they are! Mor- 
ality entire — all the following enumerated elements 
of morality constitute the only respectable and ef- 
fective foundation for any system of business, and 
for a good system of social government of mankind. 
Wherefore, because of the mental nature of man- 
kind, everyone who is not governed by love of the 
elements of morality fs far more dangerous to young 
and unsuspecting humanity than all the contagious 
diseases that afflict mankind. It is enlightened, sin- 
cere, inspiring, uplifting love of the moral laws of 
Nature, the principles of which are the elements of 
morality, that is the foundation — the only substan- 
tial, effective foundation for good government of 
the individual, the husband, the wife, the children, 
the home, the sons and daughters, the school, the 
college, the county, the State, and the State legis- 
lators, Congress, and the Nation. 

The following are some of the moral principles 
or elements of morality, each of whichTs a moral 
law of Nature. And every man and woman who 



24 NATURE AND MAN. 

willingly violates these laws is a rebel against the 
government of Nature. 

Some Moral Laws of Nature. 

Law jf Reason. — Reason is a mental law of Na- 
ture, requiring mankind to be deliberate, consider- 
ate, and reasonable; aot to neglect or ignore the 
necessary use and counsel of this always important 
faculty, which, if normal, will so direct its possessor 
in the consideration of any problem as not to vio- 
late any one of the moral laws. 

Law of Sympathy. — Violate the mental law of 
sympathy, and the violator becomes abnormal and 
is punished by the degradation and perversion of 
one of the desirable faculties, a lovable element of 
his mental organism; and he becomes meanly in- 
different to the sufferings of people and things. 

Law of Friendship. — Violate the mental law of 
friendship, and one of the violator's most excellent 
constituent elements is perverted, and one of his 
greatest sources of enjoyment and happiness is lost; 
as what is life worth without friendship ? 

Law of Love. — Violate the mental law of love, 
ah! and the punishment is severe. The violator 
becomes a rebel and traitor not only to the benign 
government of Nature, but is a rebel and a traitor 
to his own normal nature. He becomes an abnor- 
mal thing. And when he attempts to pass himself 
as good, he becomes a fraud — a mean, hateful, and 
despicable fraud on genuine humanity. He thinks 
that he loves, and he does. Everybody loves. But 
the love of the immoral is perverted (turned wrong) , 
corrupt, unclean, and even filthy. Such is the na- 
ture of the love the immoral man has for his friends 
and associates. He loves his kind and, in fact, hates 
the genuine man. Yes, everybody loves. The man 
who murders his neighbor for money loves money. 



NATURE AND MAN. 25 

Law of Generosity. — Violate the mental law of 
generosity, and the lovable quality vested in one 
of the elements of the mental man's make-up will 
be perverted, and the violator becomes abnormally 
selfish. 

Law of Honesty. — Violate the mental law of hon- 
esty, by cheating or fraud of any sort, and the pen- 
alties soon degrade and debauch the mind of the vio- 
lator, and destroy normal love for humanity. Mil- 
lions of parents have said to their children, "Hon- 
esty is the best policy." But honesty is not a "pol- 
icy," but a positive, definite law. Anything that 
may or may not be done, as one thinks best — some- 
thing optional — is a policy. When there is no ques- 
tion of moral law, either one of several ways may 
be considered, and the one that seems most suitable 
accepted, as the best policy. But in any case when 
a moral law is involved, there is only one way, and 
that is — a way in accord and harmony with the law. 

Law of Sincerity. — Violate the mental law of sin- 
cerity, by false pretense designed to mislead and 
deceive, and the violator will be punished, as when 
he violates the law of truth, which, when violated, 
quickly corrupts, degrades, and debauches the tres- 
passer on this sacred law. Any pretension, either 
in words or acts, designed to deceive, is a base and 
corrupting lie. 

Law of Truth. — Violate the law of truth. Oh, 
how often is this vastly important and sacred law 
violated in the minds and hearts of dishonest peo- 
ple, by evasions, additions, and subtractions! Any 
evasion, subtraction, or addition from or to truth 
is a willful violation, and punishment will follow. 
We are told that there is no place in Heaven for 
liars. 

Law of Purity. — Violate the law of mental pur- 
ity, and one of the charming elements of the mental 
man — the faculty of the same name as the law 



26 NATURE AND MAN. 

which it is designed to uphold, is corrupted; and 
when entirely perverted, it will have put off and 
discarded its normal nature and become a faculty of 
corruption; and, closely following, may be expected 
the corruption and perversion of all the victim's 
moral faculties. All the moral faculties perverted, 
total depravity will govern the victim. Of all the 
many sorts of physical impurity, corruption, and 
hateful, loathsome filth in things of matter and vis- 
ible to human eyes, there is no filth so impure, so 
hateful, so obnoxious and destructive of human de- 
cency and welfare, as the loathsome filth of mental 
impurity. Uncleanness of the human body can be 
washed and cleaned with water, but there is not 
soap enough on earth nor water enough in the great 
ocean to wash and clean a filthy mind! The only 
remedy for an impure mind is a change of one's 
affections and love, which can be affected by views 
from the clean man's viewpoint. 

Law of Prudence. — Violate the law of prudence, 
which is a judicious protection against errors both 
mental and physical, moral and secular, and the 
victims are drawn or enticed, by immoral and de- 
ceptive persons, into snares and traps all along 
through a lifetime; only escaping from one before 
they are caught by another, inflicting loss of char- 
acter, friends, and property, and causing a vast 
amount of sorrow and suffering. 

Law of Modesty. — Violate the law of modesty, 
which, like mental purity, is a powerful armor and 
shield, protecting from corruption one's constituent 
faculty of modesty, and as under the mental laws 
of Nature like begets that which is like itself, so 
modesty begets modesty, and thus protects to some 
extent all one's moral faculties. The law of mod- 
esty is violated by any immorality, as by any con- 
duct, joke, gesture, or words suited to cause impure 



NATURE AND MAN. 27 

thoughts. Such violations usually are prompted by 
a coarse and vulgar mind. 

Law of Chastity. — Violate the law of chastity, 
and fearful, awful — yea, ten thousand times awful, 
are the tormenting penalties that are sure to follow. 
Violators of the sacred law of chastity are rebels 
and traitors to the omnipotent Creator, to the gov- 
ernment of Nature, to genuine human nature, to 
husbands and wives, to the legitimate and the il- 
legitimate, and to decency of society. In short, a 
violation of chastity is the most hateful, the most 
harmful, the most obnoxious, and the most venom- 
ous sort of disloyalty and treason against the sacred 
purity, peace, and happiness of the places such as 
all decent people love to keep pure, to improve, and 
to make every one a "sweet home" The awful pen- 
alties which speedily follow violations of the sacred 
law of chastity do not stop with the corruption of 
the traitor's moral faculty of chastity; but soon, 
very soon, all his mental faculties are so far cor- 
rupted and perverted that he or she will no longer 
regard an oath as a thing at all sacred. 

Law of Temperance. — Temperance is both a phys- 
ical and mental law of Nature. As a physical law, 
when applied to the human body, it confines and 
restricts the mouth and the stomach of the material 
man to such foods and drinks as contain elements 
that are chemically like elements of his body, and 
consequently necessary to feed and support such 
bodily elements. The penalty for violating this phys- 
ical law of temperance is disease, sickness, pains, 
and aches. As a mental law, temperance restrains 
the mental man from the intemperate, excessive use 
of needful mental foods, and the intemperate and 
excessive use of his mental faculties; thus requiring 
him to be moderate (temperate) in the use of need- 
ful things. The penalty is impairment of mental 
capacity — in some cases to the extent of insanity. 



28 NATURE AND MAN. 

Law of Abstinence. — Abstinence is both a phys- 
ical and a mental law of Nature. As a physical 
law, it prohibits the use of, as food or drink, any 
substance chemically unlike any of the elements or 
composition of the human body. Wherefore poi- 
sons and alcoholic drinks, being unlike any of the 
elements or normal composition of the human body, 
are consequently foreign, unnatural, obnoxious, ir- 
ritating, and damaging to the body. The penalty 
is irritation, chronic inflammation, intoxication, and 
disease. As a mental law, it prohibits the use of, 
as mental food, anything unclean, and consequently 
unlike and foreign to man's normal nature. The 
penalty is mental corruption and perversion of the 
moral faculties of the violator. 

Law of Industry. — Industry and use are laws of 
Nature, both physical and mental. An infant would 
never be able to walk were it not shown by its par- 
ents or others how to use its legs and induced to 
use them. It would never talk were it not encour- 
aged by hearing others talk. Support one arm and 
hand in a sling at one's breast without use for six 
months, and its owner could not raise it to the top 
of his head without difficulty. As a mental law, 
Nature requires use as the absolute necessity to ef- 
fect development of mental capacity. Wherefore, 
if a child's mental faculties be not developed by 
actual use, he will be a mere pygmy, without men- 
tal capacity and force. A dwarfed and incapaci- 
tated mental condition would be the consequence 
and the penalty for violating this law of Nature. 

As a man is one of the agencies of the omnipo- 
tent Creator, he has no right either to injure or to 
kill himself; nor to expose himself to injury or 
death; as, being an agency of the Creator, it is 
his duty to live and to cheerfully co-work along 
with the established agencies of the Creator. To 
shirk and avoid duty is disloyalty to one's true self 



NATURE AND MAN. 29 

and to^the^government of Nature. Obedience to 
the laws^ off Nature is man's only escape from im- 
mediate punishment — to follow disobedience. But 
do not imagine that the punishment under the laws 
of Nature are a substitute for future punishment. 
Better to remember "that no amount of punishment 
by the physical and moral laws of Nature will save 
anybody from separation from the pure in heart, as 
the Bible tells us that neither ' ' flesh nor blood ' ' nor 
any "unclean thing" shall enter the kingdom of 
Heaven. Any person disloyal to the beautiful mor- 
al laws of normal human nature is radically "un- 
clean" and unfitted to associate along with the "pure 
in heart" here on earth or elsewhere. As to man- 
kind and laws of Nature, whatever changes may 
have taken place in the nature of man, by perver- 
sion, since the creation of Adam and Eve, it is evi- 
dent, from the exact adaptability of these laws to 
man's normal nature and well-being, that there has 
been no change in the laws of Nature. These re- 
main the same and are, no doubt, as old as creation; 
and, if obeyed, would make all mankind happy. A 
healthy condition of body and mind is evidence of 
one's accord and harmony with the physical and 
mental laws of Nature. 

All the principles and rules of Nature are abso- 
lute, stubborn, unyielding, unchangeable laws, and 
are correct, just and right — all in accord and harmo- 
ny with wisdom; and any attempt to revise, modify, 
or improve any one of these will be a violation of 
imperative law, and the person, people, or govern- 
ment so opposing Nature will suffer Nature's unfail- 
ing penalty. Not so of laws of men — many of which 
are experimental, selfish, unjust, and harmful. As 
the laws of Nature are paramount, they are the 
higher laws, and morally nullify all laws of men not 
in accord therewith. In a strictly moral sense any 
such laws of men as violate moral laws are invalid 



3 o NATURE AND MAN. 

and not justly enforceable ; but in court we are sub- 
jected to human laws; and justices of the peace, 
juries, and judges are supposed to try and decide 
cases according to laws of men, without much, if 
any, consideration and effective regard for the higher 
and better laws of Nature. The decisions of justices, 
judges, and juries, bound by such laws as violate 
wisdom's moral laws, cause a vast amount of wrong, 
injustice, sorrow, grief, and suffering. 

The Differences in People. 

Disloyalty and the consequent failure to recog- 
nize, respect, and uphold the excellent moral laws 
of Nature make the difference between the good and 
the bad people of any community. All are good 
who respect and uphold these laws, and all are bad 
who do not. 

In many thousands of cases things that are im- 
moral, dishonest, and degrading are not so consid- 
ered by people who, having little or no love for any 
moral law, willingly fail to see and respect the mor- 
al law which they violate. It is this failure to rec- 
ognize the benign government of Nature, and to re- 
spect, love, and uphold her moral laws, that causes 
men to advocate any license system — allowing men 
and women to do things that, viewed from a moral 
viewpoint, are clearly wrong, immoral, dishonest, 
and degrading to humanity. They are men and 
women who neither recognize, respect, nor uphold 
moral laws, who are willing to pay license to do 
such business or things as are immoral, degrading, 
and damaging to humanity. Men authorized to 
make laws trespass on and. violate a higher law — 
such as mankind has no power to repeal — when 
they make human laws licensing anything whatever 
that violates a moral principle, as every moral prin- 
ciple is a moral law higher and far above and out 
of legal reach of all courts created by mankind. No 



NATURE AND MAN. 31 

court and no law-making power on earth has the jur- 
isdiction or right to amend or repeal, and no moral 
power to add anything to, and no power to sub- 
tract anything from, a moral principle. 

The eye of Nature is always upon one disloyal 
to her laws. Being omnipresent, she needs no blood- 
hounds nor detectives to ferret out and run down 
violators of her beautiful laws. Neither ignorance, 
nor insanity, nor intoxication excuses disloyalty. 
There is no appeal to any higher court. The mighty, 
marvelous creative and executive power vested in 
the laws of Nature, though invisible, is everywhere 
present and back of these laws, baffling the unphil- 
osophical and unscientific workman, by defeating the 
usefulness and success of his inventions, and inflict- 
ing punishment upon all w T ho ignore and transgress 
any law of Nature. The physical laws of Nature 
are exactly adapted to success in all the arts where 
material or matter of any sort is used. All success- 
ful inventions are successful because constructed in 
harmony with such laws; and failure, disappoint- 
ment, and loss is the penalty for the violation of 
Nature's principles pertaining to mechanics and art. 



MAN AS A TWO-FOLD BEING. 



Man of Material — Man of Mind. 

Objective and Subjective Minds. 

In treating of man as a two-fold being, I have 
no purpose or intention of refuting or antagonizing 
the theory that man is a three-fold being; nor to 
theorize on what is called a dual or two-fold mind, 
or what is the equivalent of two minds — called the 
objective and the subjective; the objective for use 
during this life, and the subjective for use in a 
sphere beyond the grave. (The subjective mind is 



32 NATURE AND MAN. 

said to possess the power of perfect memory and 
one or two other powers not possessed by the ob- 
jective mind.) But my purpose is to benefit hu- 
manity by producing some exceedingly interesting 
and everyday-useful analyses of the two-fold man, 
and to analyze, explain, and illustrate his physical 
and mental natures; analyses and consideration of 
things that are of matter and things that are of 
mind and concern and affect human welfare every 
hour of the present lifetime. 

The two-fold man is the ever wideawake, active, 
energetic, physical and mental man of everyday act- 
ivities. In him, I assume, are two lives — the ani- 
mal and the spiritual or mental; the life of the 
body and the life of the spiritual or mental man — 
the mind. The man of visible, tangible, weighable 
material is the animal man, whom I call the ma- 
terial man. The other and far more important fold 
of the two-fold man is immaterial or spiritual, which 
means that he is not of material or matter, and 
not visible, tangible, and weighable, whom I call 
the mental man, because he is spiritual or mental. 
It is this same wonderful two-fold man who during 
the past thousands of years has felled forests, made 
homes, broken the virgin soil, planted, cultivated, 
and harvested; built school-houses and churches, 
reared families, built towns and cities; dug canals, 
made boats, ships, and railroads; who has conceived 
and invented wonderful machinery; who has ex- 
plored the world and penetrated the moon and the 
stars. Yea, this two-fold man has subdued the 
beasts of the earth, and has governed mankind, by 
mental and physical forces, for thousands of years, 
and will govern the people of future generations. 
Normal minds will lead their possessors in good 
works, resulting in hope, faith, and joy; and the ab- 
normal minds, in ways and works of evil, resulting in 
doubt distrust regrets, and sorrow. Peace of con 



NATURE AND MAN. 33 

science and joy for him who is loyal to his own normal 
nature, but doubt and disturbance ofjmind'and sor- 
row for him who is guided by an abnormal and dis- 
loyal mind. Loyalty to one's pervertedTandJcon- 
sequently bad nature is disloyalty to man's normal 
and true nature. By perversion man becomes^ a 
traitor to himself. 

The wide difference in the elements and nature 
of the material man and the mental man, though 
inseparably united in one body for the lifetime of 
the material man, made the necessity for the two 
different and entire systems and codes of laws — the 
physical and the mental laws of Nature, some of 
which are considered, analytically, in this book. 

The word mind and the words mental man, as 
used in this book, always have reference to the* ob- 
jective mind. The author fully believes that man's 
welfare for this present life, and for a future life 
beyond the grave, depends on the character and 
works of his objective mind. If a man hath two 
minds practically duplicates (alike), why should he 
care which one may personate him in the next 
world? If the objective mind is pure, the subject- 
ive will be pure likewise; and if the objective mind 
entertains sweet memories of life, things, and friends, 
the subjective " mind will remember all these too. So 
do not worry, if the objective mind is right and pure. 
It is said, "Blessed are the pure in heart." In this 
quotation "heart" means "mind." 

It is this same wondrous, marvelous mind (the 
mental man), the same or like those (minds) that 
did govern our fathers, and our grandfathers, and 
our great - grandfathers, and our greatest - grand- 
fathers. And it is the same sort and quality f 
mind as that which* wooed and won the affections 
and love of all our mothers, grandmothers, great- 
grandmothers, and our greatest-grandmothers. And 
it was mind-faculties of the objective mind with 



34 NATURE AND MAN. 

which Adam wooed and won Mother Eve. Ah! 
wonderful, wonderful, marvelous mind — the mental 
man! It is transmitted, by decreed mental laws of 
Nature, from generation to generation during the 
centuries. Closely akin to its Creator, the extent 
of its marvelous capacities is unknown. 



THE MATERIAL MAN. 



A Wonderful, Marvelous Machine, Made of 
Many Co-Operating and Self- 
Renewing Machines. 



Astonishing, Amazing Plan and Wisdom 
of Construction. 

The word man, as used in this book, usually 
means one of the human race, and, in this sense, 
it is of both genders — including male and female. 

The following analysis of man ought to be far 
more interesting, as it is far more educational, than 
any fiction. The astonishing mechanism of the won- 
derful machine called man, and the amazing wisdom 
and marvelous power of an omnipotent Creator, as 
represented, easily entertain the thoughtful. Sure- 
ly, the wonderful plan, the astonishing construction, 
the amazing co-operation of all its parts, the mar- 
velous self -building and self -renewing, and, finally, 
the incomprehensible animal and spiritual life, will 
entertain and benefit every reader. 

The chemical composition — the various ingredi- 
ents of which anything is composed — are its ele- 
ments. Thus if a sw T eet cake be made of flour, su- 
gar, butter, eggs, milk, and baking-powder, these 
are its elements, or grosser elements, as each of these 
contains several lesser elements. It is a most re- 
markable fact, and very significant too, as confirm- 



NATURE AND MAN. 35 

ing the Biblical account of the creation of the first 
man, Adam, out "of the dust of the ground," that 
men of to-day are in fact earth — chemically the 
same as the dust of the ground, as is shown and 
proven by scientific chemical analysis of his body 
and limbs; which prove that his elements (or com- 
position) are in fact, as stated in the Bible, the 
same as those of dust; the change from dust to 
flesh, blood, and bone in the creation of Adam be- 
ing in appearance to the eyesight, but not a change 
of the chemical nature of dust. This is proof won- 
derful that Nature, marvelous Nature, fully enforces 
its law of reproduction — that everything shall bring 
forth "after its kind." Even the elements of the 
earth, the dust of the ground, beget, produce, bring 
forth each of its own kind; whether in the creation 
of man, or the production of a grain of wheat, corn, 
or other species of vegetable or animal matter. 

As the composition of man corresponds with the 
elements of good soil, God Himself must have used 
the "dust" of good soil to make Father Adam. I 
wonder how Adam looked. Think of him — a man 
who was never born, and never a baby, but of full 
size when an hour or perhaps a minute old. What 
was his height and weight? If I were a gambler, 
I 'd bet two to one that Adam and Eve had twelve 
fingers and twelve toes — the same as I have. Is 
it to be supposed that the Lord ignored and dis- 
regarded the fact that, in future time, good things 
were to come and go by the dozen, as eggs, buttons, 
etc., do? So I suppose Adam was made just right 
every way, including fingers and toes — just one 
dozen each? 

But what a beautiful example of loyalty to the 
government of Nature — even the dust of the ground, 
the various elements of which the ground is com- 
posed, are loyal and obedient to the laws and gov- 
ernment of Nature. Even the dust of the earth 



36 NATURE AND MAN. 

transmits elements of its own chemical sort (though 
different in appearance) to plants and plants to their 
seeds and fruits. The plant produces in its seed or 
fruit no element not in the ground or atmosphere 
where it grows. This is the reason why some soil 
is poor and unproductive, because it does not con- 
tain some of the important elements or composition 
of the cereals, grasses, or fruits, and consequently 
produces very small crops or even none. 

Every material thing is composed of chemical 
elements, many of which are not seen and distin- 
guished one from another by ordinary eyesight, but 
are developed and discovered by chemical analysis. 

Elements of Man. — The grosser elements of a 
material man are bones, tissues, muscles, flesh, fat, 
nerves, blood, etc. Each of these is composed 
of several lesser elements discovered by chemistry. 
They are oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, phos- 
phorus, iodine, chlorine, hydrogen, fluorine, magnesia, 
calcium, potassium, sodium, iron, silica, manganese, 
and copper. In addition to the above elements, all 
of which are in combinations, almost any other ele- 
ment may be considered accidental. 

Cells of Man. — The whole human body is com- 
posed largely of cells, small mouth-like cavities or 
hollow bodies. Each individual part consists of 
groups of cells characteristic in shape and size of 
its part of the body or tissue. Some cells are so 
very small that an excellent microscope is required 
to see them. Others are very nearly large enough 
to be seen by the eye without aid. There are a 
large variety in the shape, size, and color of these 
cells. 

All have heard that the human body is always 
changing — being often renewed. This is true be- 
cause of its composition of countless millions of 
short-lived cells. It is known that a majority of 
its cells are short-lived; cells of bone being the 



NATURE AND MAN. 37 

longer-lived. Certain cells are decreed to do cer- 
tain work, and do no other. Each cell can take 
food from the blood and change it into its own 
structure. Thus cells of the heart repair and re- 
build the heart, and cells of the lungs repair and 
rebuild the lungs. It is thought that the cells com- 
posing the harder parts, as cartilage, "bones, and the 
finger-nails, are comparatively long-lived — long com- 
pared with those of the soft and active glands. The 
whole lifetime of the cells of some of the soft and 
very active glands is supposed to be but a few hours. 
Vast numbers of cells are rapidly worn out, die, and 
are^cast off, and new ones are as rapidly formed 
and grow to take the places of the old. Cells in- 
crease rapidly in numbers during the growing peri- 
od of the body, as is necessary to cause the growth 
of children. But, as cells are naturally short-lived, 
they soon grow old, break down, die, and are cast 
off; and, as new cells take the places of the worn- 
out, the whole body is soon changed. Each move- 
ment of the body, every activity of a part, causes 
a wear and waste of tissue, and this loss must be 
replaced by new material. 

The process of decay and wear-out and the proc- 
ess of repair are not equal. In infancy, childhood, 
and youth both the building material and the build- 
ing up greatly exceed the wearing out and breaking 
down, and far more material is used to build than is 
needed to repair, and the body grows and develops. 
When, later in life, the processes of wear-out and 
repair are nearly equal, for some years the form and 
weight of the body remain about the same. A 
change comes with old age, and weight diminishes 
and the physical forces become less active. The 
wear-out then exceeds the repair, and the final pe- 
riod of decay has come. 

A Wonderful Machine. — The material man is an 
amazingly planned and marvelously constructed, 



38 NATURE AND MAN. 

matchless, self -moving and self -renewing machine; 
having a frame not of wood and iron, but of bones 
covered with tissues, muscles, and flesh. Its prin- 
cipal parts are: the stomach, intestines, liver, kid- 
neys, lungs, brain, heart, arteries, capillaries, and 
veins. The capillaries are very small hair-like veins. 
All these, and still others, co-working harmoniously, 
compose the one complete, complicated machine 
called Man. 

Each of his organs mentioned above, and still 
others not enumerated, is itself a marvelous ma- 
chine, composed of millions of living cells, of vari- 
ous sizes and shapes, arranged in groups; and every 
cell is a master mechanic, a machinist, a chemist, 
and a matchless builder; busy absorbing food ele- 
ments of its own chemical nature, from the blood, 
and changing them to flesh, muscle, nerve, or bone; 
with which it builds and repairs its own structure. 
And while this work is being done, a new cell is 
started (growing) in time to take the place of the 
old, which soon dies, and is cast off. 

Every one of his many organs is an absolute 
necessity, as each part does work that can not be 
long discontinued without serious and fatal disturb- 
ance of the normal working of the entire man- 
machine, followed by disease and death. 

Perceive, the material (in cells) of which each 
organ and other parts of this wonderful man-machine 
is composed, feeds, builds, and repairs itself. Each 
cell, in sucking or absorbing food from the blood 
and feeding and building itself, is feeding and build- 
ing that part of an organ of which it is a part. But 
so soon is a cell (the material of organs) worn out 
and succeeded by a new cell, that the whole organ 
is constantly changing, and yet remains chemically 
the same — not the same old material, but new, of the 
same kind and shape as that which preceded; and 
in this way in a few years the whole of one's body 



NATURE AND MAN. 39 

has been renewed. It is not known how often the 
body is renewed. 

And Nature accomplishes all this work without 
stopping the machine, or the slightest interruption 
of the successful working of any of its many in- 
tricate parts. Oh, how wonderful, how marvelous 
are the powers and works of Nature — the agencies 
of creation! 

How well, how remarkably well, is the material 
man planned for a long, long life! Endowed with 
Nature's power of self -renewal, he is planned and 
constructed just right to enable him to live on and 
on for thousands of years. 

The period in life when the process of wear-out 
exceeds the process of repair is premature, and 
caused by man's violations, for centuries, of the 
physical and mental laws of his normal nature. 

The Material Man's Machine-like Nature. 

The mechanical and machine -like nature of the 
material man is easily seen in his personal habits. 
A habit is a way acquired by repeated acts of the 
same manner. It is a law of animal nature (of phys- 
iology) that each time a nerve-cell acts in the same 
way it gains a power which makes the second act 
more easily performed, and in this way a habit is 
established. 

. Though the first acts are directed by the mind, 
later this direction is withdrawn, and acts become 
mechanical and machine-like. 

Everybody has physical habits, as a peculiar 
manner of walking, of writing, of crossing a "/" 
and of dotting an "i," etc., all of which are machine- 
like and not at all mental, but ways of the machine- 
man. When writing, one man crosses the letter 
"t"', another man makes a line near but not across 
the "t." One man punctuates on the line; another 
below or above the line on which he is writing. 



4 o NATURE AND MAN. 

All these and scores of other things~are carefully 
directed by the mind of a school-boy, until nerve 
habit is formed, after which the close attention of 
one's mind is withdrawn. 

As this is not a comprehensive book on physi- 
ology, I will only refer briefly to the co-work of a 
few of the parts and organs of this machine-man. 
)ty. The Stomach. — The stomach may be consid- 
ered the mill which prepares foods for absorption 
into the blood. Soon after food is taken into the 
stomach and the secretion of gastric juice has com- 
menced, the muscular walls of the stomach contract 
and cause a churning movement of the stomach, 
such as to thoroughly mix the food and gastric 
juice, which quickly softens the food. The move- 
ment of the stomach is continued, by contracting 
and relaxing, until the food is assimilated or worked 
into a uniform pulp or soft mass; and then it is 
thrown or pressed out of the stomach into the small 
intestines, from which location the food elements 
are absorbed into the blood circulation — the mar- 
velous distributing and collecting system conducted 
by the heart, arteries, capillaries, and veins — and 
carried and distributed to all parts of the body and 
limbs; and the unassimilated and rejected matter 
is earned out of the body by the lower bowels. 

Absorption. — Absorption is the process by which 
food elements pass from the small intestines into 
the blood circulation. Much of the water taken as 
drink is absorbed by the blood-vessels of the stom- 
ach. But digested foods are absorbed, principally, 
from the small intestines. There is but little ab- 
sorption of foods while in the stomach. 

The Liver. — The liver co-operates by secreting 
from two to three pints of bile each day, which is 
carried to the intestines, where it aids absorption 
of the oily and fatty foods, and, by moistening the 



NATURE AND MAN. 41 

walls of the intestines, renders the unabsorbed food 
less liable to decomposition. 

The Lungs. — The lungs supply all parts of the 
man-machine with oxygen. It is used in every part 
of the body, and supplied by the lungs and blood. 
Every time one breathes — every inhalation carries 
to and supplies the lungs with a quantity of oxygen. 
The red corpuscles of the blood have a strong lik- 
ing or affinity for oxygen. So strong is this affin- 
ity that while the blood is passing through the lungs 
these red globules take oxygen from the air in the 
lungs. The red corpuscles or globules thus loaded 
with oxygen give it up to cells exerting a still 
greater affinity for oxygen than the red corpuscles; 
and thus do the lungs co-operate with the blood to 
supply oxygen. As no life can exist without oxy- 
gen, the work of the lungs is an absolute necessity 
to life. They are constructed with special adapta- 
tion to receiving and distributing large quantities 
of this stimulating, inspiring, life -preserving gas. 
Not only do the lungs supply oxygen, but they ex- 
hale some foul and obnoxious gases that accumulate 
in the body. 

As to the activity of the lungs, though they do 
a vast amount of work, yet they do rest. If we 
divide respiratory action into three equal parts, one 
will be occupied in inspiration (filling the lungs with 
air), one in expiration (emptying the lungs), and 
the third by a period of quiet and rest. Thus, dur- 
ing about one-third of the time the muscles of res- 
piration and the lungs are at rest. 

Head, Brain, and Nerves. — The head of man may 
be considered as the home and business office of 
the spiritual master and operator of the machine- 
man, the material man being the servant of the op- 
erator, who is a superior, and not of flesh and blood. 



42 NATURE AND MAN. 

The Brain an Instrument for the Mind. 

As to the brain, there has been and is a vast 
amount of theorizing and speculating, and it is quite 
possible, even probable, that men, in fact, have much 
yet to learn about the brain. In my opinion, the 
brain is a thing of material, visible, tangible, weigh- 
able matter, and to a wide extent incomprehensible. 
The brain is the seat of animal instinct, which be- 
longs naturally to the brain, and of mind, thought, 
and reason — in short, of all that is mental and spir- 
itual of mankind. 

But what is mind? Ah! Is it of bones, nerves, 
muscles, flesh, and blood? All these can be found, 
seen, weighed, and measured. Brain is regarded by 
niost theologians not as some part of mind, but as 
the organism through which mind works and com- 
municates with the outer world. After death and 
before decomposition begins, the brain is perfect, 
physically, without the presence of the mind. The 
two, brain and mind, may be illustrated by a loco- 
motive with steam and one without. The machin- 
ery of the locomotive is, as it were, the brain, and 
the steam is the mind. The locomotive is perfect 
without steam, but is dead. When the brain be- 
comes seriously diseased, it fails to convey properly 
the messages of the mind, and then it is said, " He 's 
insane." 

There are two sets of nerves (small cords); one 
set extends from the brain to the spinal cord and 
on to every part of the human body, and another 
set extends from every part of the body to the 
brain — forming two complete sets. As a rule, the 
two sets run side by side throughout the entire 
body. One set conveys sensation (a dispatch) from 
the outer part of the body to the nerve-centers in 
the brain; the other set conveys impressions (dis- 
patches) from the brain outward to the muscles of 



NATURE AND MAN. 43 

the body. This peculiar sensation or force, con- 
veyed along a nerve from one'part of the body to 
another, is called the nerve-current, and travels 
along a nerve at the rate of more than one hundred 
feet a second. It is not known what this current is. 
Thus the nerve-current is started by a mental stim- 
ulus, as a desire to move the arm; the stimulus is 
the act of the will, which excites the nerve-current 
to action, and it quickly passes down a nerve to 
the muscles of the arm, which, obeying the call, 
raise the arm. While the nerves are neither iron 
nor steel wire, and the nerve-current may not be 
electricity, yet they seem to be good substitutes, in 
their special capacity, as I have described them 
above. 

In my book "Man: Body, Mind, and Soul" I have 
said: "The brain is, as it were, the middle-man 
through whom the mind communicates its thoughts, 
sentiments, and desires to the world — to the spirits 
of other people; and when this source of communi- 
cation is cut off or deranged, as it may be by a 
seriously diseased brain, there can be no intelligent 
communication with the world, until the health of 
the brain be restored." When one's brain becomes 
thus seriously diseased, he is said to be crazy or 
insane. 

The brain, when normal, is as fully subject to 
and under command of the mind as any other part 
of one's body. Order your right hand to the top 
of your head, and the order is visibly obeyed, obedi- 
ence being effected by power of the will to send a 
dispatch by a nerve to muscles in the right arm. 
Thus the brain, nerves, and muscles all obey and 
lift the right hand, as was willed by the commander- 
in-chief, the mental-man, or mind. The vital ma- 
chines or organs of the body work (co-work) day 
and night the whole lifetime of their owner without 
being commanded by nerve dispatches. But other 



44 NATURE AND MAN. 

machines, as the arms, hands, and fingers, and the 
legs, feet, and toes — each a machine, but not vital or 
necessary to the continuation of the life of the vital 
machines — are subject to orders, by nerve telegra- 
phy, from their master (the mental man) , and when 
not under command, are at rest. In not giving the 
mental man power to control the actions ol the 
vital organs of his servant is shown the marvelous 
foresight and wisdom of the Creator; as, if man 
could by the power of his will stop the movements 
of his heart, many would use such power as a con- 
venient means of suicide, which is murder. Ev- 
eryone who commits suicide murders his servant. 
Though the servant pulls the trigger or takes poison, 
he does so in obedience to orders from his superior 
and master, who is personally responsible for murder. 

The brain I regard as the telegraphic instrument 
of the mental or spiritual man, with its electrical or 
dispatch nerves extending to every minute part of 
the surface of the entire body and limbs of the 
material man. 

But the brain is far more than a dispatching 
machine. It also is a calculating machine, to be 
used at will by the mental man. Men have in- 
vented calculating machines used to save labor in 
obtaining correct amounts of dollars and cents; and 
machines that talk, whistle, and sing, and machines 
that fly. But the mental man is provided with a 
most wonderful, marvelous machine — the brain, a 
machine not invented by man, which he uses to 
obtain mathematical figures and in many other cal- 
culations, and also in communication with other 
persons about any calculation, matter, or thing. 
The latter work he accomplishes by willing a dis- 
patch to the muscles of the tongue of his ever- 
faithful servant and willing what he wishes it to 
say, and speedily the mouth opens and the tongue 
obeys the command, and the desired words are 



NATURE AND MAN. 45 

spoken to another person. And thus, through the 
brain, the mutual relations of body and mind are 
effected. But it is not known how the brain and 
the mind are connected. 

Heart, Veins, Etc. — The heart is another won- 
derful machine — a double pump, about the size of 
the closed hand or fist of its owner. It has four 
compartments or rooms — two upper and two lower, 
as a two-story house. The blood-vessels that carry 
the blood away from the heart are called arteries. 
The smaller vessels that gather up the blood and 
lead it back to the heart are called veins. The 
very, very small vessels that connect the arteries 
and veins are called capillaries. They carry the 
blood from the last and smaller divisions of ar- 
teries to the first divisions of the veins. 

Could a person remove the parts that hide the 
heart from view and see it pumping the blood- 
stream along, he would be greatly astonished at 
the force and rapidity of its work. It forces the 
blood against a pressure which, for the left ven- 
tricle, amounts to a column of blood six or eight 
feet in height. Each portion of the heart handles 
about six ounces of blood at each stroke, and re- 
peats the strokes about seventy-two times per min- 
ute. This is said to be equal in labor to that of 
a man of average weight climbing a mountain three 
thousand feet high every twenty-four hours. About 
one-twelfth of the entire weight of one's body is 
blood, and yet it is all handled by this astonishing 
little pump, co-operating with the arteries, capil- 
laries, and veins. 

But the heart does obtain some rest between 
distinct periods of suspension of motion. Thus, 
after the contraction and dilatation of the auricles 
and ventricles of the heart in pumping, there is an 
interval, a pause, during which the heart is entirely 
at rest, and which amounts to about one-quarter of 



46 NATURE AND MAN. 

the time necessary to make one pulsation and begin 
another, which equals about one-quarter of all the 
time. 

Navigable Streams of Blood. — But about the use 
of this marvelous blood- way system. The arteries, 
capillaries, and veins are vital machinery, absolutely 
necessary to the continuance of the life of their 
owner. The blood-streams sent out by the heart 
and conducted by these organs to every part of 
the entire man are navigable streams and loaded 
with freight of the greatest possible value — of life 
value — to their owner; as, without the supplies car- 
ried by these blood-streams, death soon would be 
the consequence. The freight which I refer to is 
food elements — building material, supplies for the 
millions of tiny self -builders, the living cells. The 
streams also are navigable for and carry dead cells 
and other worn-out and cast-off matter en route to 
the kidneys, lungs, and the skin, through which 
such matter is cast out of the body. The supply 
of blood is maintained, and the blood renewed, and 
by the absorption of water and other liquids and 
changed to red color when it comes in contact with 
air in passing through the lungs. 

Behold the beautiful, inspiring, stimulating ex- 
amples of industry, endurance, and patient labor, 
interrupted only by very short and uniform periods 
of necessary rest, that are set by the stomach, heart, 
arteries, capillaries, veins, lungs, and other organs 
of the marvelous machine-man, and profit by these 
examples. 

The successful co-operation of so many intricate 
machines — each a marvel because of the wisdom of 
its construction — is proof enough that there was a 
designer (planner) and Creator. The superhuman 
wisdom shown in the plan and the construction of 
the heart, arteries, capillaries and veins is matchless 
by finite mind. This marvelous co-operating ma- 



NATURE AND MAN. 47 

chinery was planned to force blood-streams, loaded 
with food for the tiny cells, to every part of one's 
body, and to return the blood back to the heart, and 
quickly start it again, and again, on these round 
trips — to be continued uninterruptedly through a 
whole lifetime. Whence the wisdom? Was there 
a Creator? 

PHYSICAL HEREDITY. 



Wonderful Power of Like Production. 



Human Blood Counts in Creation. 

Nature's physical and mental laws govern pro- 
duction and reproduction: everything brings forth, 
begets its own kind, whether of animate or inani- 
mate matter. In strict obedience to this wonderful 
law of Nature, the material man inherits from his 
parents much physical sameness — reproductions of 
peculiarities and oddities, many of which are insig- 
nificant, but some indicate degeneracy, and others 
excellence. He does not and can not inherit any 
peculiarity that does not belong to one of his par- 
ents, as it would be impossible for either to transmit 
any peculiarity or oddity not possessed. He in- 
herits a large or small, well- or ill-shaped head; lit- 
tle or big, straight or crooked nose; large or small 
mouth; thick or thin lips; high or low cheek-bones; 
low, high, erect, or sloping forehead; large or small, 
projecting or erect, thin or thick ears; long or short 
fingers; big or small, projecting or sunken eyes, and 
their color; long, narrow, or square head, with de- 
ficient or excessive base; big, sensual chin; large 
or small, slim or wide, long or short feet; long or 
short, straight or crooked legs; light or dark com- 
plexion and color of hair; tendencies to corpulence 
and leanness; deformities, hump-backs, and mon- 



48 NATURE AND MAN. 

strosities. And he inherits diseases and diseased or- 
gans and undeveloped germs of fatal diseases that 
may develop at any period of life when conditions 
are favorable for development. He inherits debased 
appetite for intoxicating drinks, and low and sensual 
passions. And he inherits temper, cross or mild, 
bad and good. And he inherits great, moderate, 
or weak vitality and nerves. 

As illustrating how closely Nature enforces her 
laws governing production and reproduction — of 
like beget (or produce) like — I will be excused for 
making a reference personal to myself and some of 
my own family. I inherited from my father twelve 
perfect fingers and twelve perfect toes — twenty-four 
in all; and my two daughters and two sons were 
born each with twenty-four perfect fingers and toes. 
Other children did not inherit. My father inher- 
ited twenty-four fingers and toes from his mother, 
who was one of a noted family — a sister of Zach- 
ariah Green, a noted minister of Long Island, New 
York, who will be long remembered by his friends. 
(See II. Samuel 20:21.) It is not a frivolous freak of 
Nature, but a rare and very superior 1 ' breed, "(!) that 
can be traced back several generations. 

A few months ago I saw a young woman and 
her mother, all of whose fingers have only two joints 
each, the same as one's thumb. Their short two- 
jointed fingers were inherited. The mother, too, 
inherited from a parent. 

Two years ago I was a guest at a hotel in Illi- 
nois whose landlord's eyes were so defective that 
when writing he had to hold his head down so low 
that his eyes were within about three inches of the 
paper on which he wrote, else he could not see to 
write. He is a married man and has several chil- 
dren, each of whom have inherited eyes but little 
better than their father's. The marriage of persons 
so seriously defective as to cripple and disable ought 



NATURE AND MAN. 49 

to be prohibited by law, for the sake of love and 
mercy for humanity. Many of the physical pecu- 
liarities are of little or no significance; too many, 
however, about the head form a circumstance to be 
seriously considered, as they may mean or indicate 
that the person is predisposed to mental unbalance. 

More Careful of Farm Stock. 

In hundreds of thousands of cases, sons and 
daughters are given in marriage and unequally yoked 
without one-half as much intelligent care and careful 
consideration as to blood-qualities as the average 
farmer uses to improve the sheep, swine, horses, and 
cattle on the farm. 

I am anxious, oh! so anxious to impress indel- 
libly upon the minds of my readers the physiolog- 
ical fact that human "blood" transmits its qual- 
ities, whether good or bad, and counts as much on 
the human family as does other blood on the herds 
on a farm. A child who has inherited a strong, 
vigorous constitution, free from physical and nerv- 
ous weakness, has inherited that which is of far 
greater value than that of another child who in- 
herits a million dollars and a weak nervous system. 
With the strong, vigorous constitution, and equal 
in mind, the child without money has a start in life 
far better than that of the child of weak nervous 
system and a million dollars. 

But about inherited value of physical strength 
and usefulness, the material man is the faithful 
machine-servant who does the physical work of the 
mental man, and his usefulness and value depend 
on the sort of use his master (the mental man) 
makes of him. In a strong, well-developed body 
and nerves is great physical power. But physical 
power is of little or no value when not wisely used 
or directed by the master — by the mental man. 
The large size and great physical strength of a ma- 



5 o NATURE AND MAN. 

terial man can not be taken as proof or evidence 
that his master is correspondingly large and strong 
mentally; as in many cases the mental man (the 
master) is weak mentally. There are many thous- 
ands of men of big heads and powerful bodies and 
nerves, who, being the servants of weak mental men, 
are of but little value and use. And, too, there are 
thousands of men of weak bodies and nerves, the 
servants of strong, vigorous mental men, who are 
very useful and accomplish a vast amount of good. 
Wherefore, it is more important that the faculties 
of the mental man be well developed than that his 
machine-servant have a strong body and nerves. (By 
the above is meant, one's body is the servant of his 
mind.) 

Creative Power. — The question as to which par- 
ent is vested with the greater creative power is a 
difficult one. In some cases, heredity is stronger 
on the mother's side, and in other cases, on the fath- 
er's side. But I do not believe that heredity skips 
back and inherits from an ancestor any quality or 
thing that is not characteristic of one or the other 
parent. The decreed physical laws governing crea- 
tion do not support any such theory. Some chil- 
dren seem to have inherited largely from one of the 
parents, and others more largely from the other; 
while many have inherited from both. Prof. N. N. 
Riddell on heredity says: "Any physical defect or 
abnormality is much more apt to pass from father 
to daughter, or mother to son, than otherwise;" 
and that "the creative power of each parent is 
greatest in the production of the opposite sex." 
But we know that there are many exceptions to 
Mr. Riddell's general rule. 

Finally, none of the laws of men are so well en- 
forced as is Nature's law of creation — requiring ev- 
ery species, whether animal or vegetable, to create 
its own sort, and no other. The mule is a familiar 



NATURE AND MAN. 51 

proof of Nature's enforcement of this law. He is a 
mongrel from two species of the horse family, and, 
because of this law, he can not propagate or create 
more of his kind. Perceive, tinder this law it is ut- 
terly impossible for any species of animal to develop 
into and propagate another or new species. The 
mule would be a new species if he could breed. 
That man is an original species, conceived and made 
by the omniscient and omnipotent Creator, no one 
need doubt. He is no mongrel. The old, old say- 
ing that ''blood will tell" is true, and one of the 
decreed laws of the omniscient and omnipotent Cre- 
ator. How well and how completely does this law 
governing physical production or creation contra- 
dict and refute Darwin's false and ridiculous theory 
of evolution — the absurd theory that some animals, 
by a process called evolution, gradually change from 
one species (of animals) into another; as, for in- 
stance, the monkey into a man! How utterly out 
of accord with the physical laws that govern the 
processes of creation of the species ! 



TABLE FOODS. 



Feeding, Building, Repairing, and Rebuilding 
the Material Man. 

When a good mechanic is to enlarge or repair 
a machine made of wood, iron, brass, steel, copper, 
glass, etc., he selects material for each part and 
place of the same kind as was used in making the 
machine to be repaired, using wood where wood, iron 
where iron, brass where brass, was used in the orig- 
inal structure. The same mechanical principles are 
enforced by Nature, in building and repairing the 
living machinery of which the material man is com- 
posed. He is made, as I have stated, of countless 



52 NATURE AND MAN. 

millions of little cells; and these cells are each com- 
posed of a number — usually several — of the chem- 
ical elements of which the human body is composed. 
These millions of living cells are, as elsewhere stated, 
each a chemist and a first-class builder and repairer. 
And these tiny workers (each a cell) build and re- 
pair all parts of the human body; and, as each of 
these builders is itself a part of that part of the 
human body which it builds and repairs, therefore 
each builder must be supplied with building mate- 
rial composed of chemical elements that are of the 
same chemical nature as those of itself — the same 
as the composition of which it is composed; as, in 
fact, its work is building and repairing itself. Per- 
ceive, a cell in building and repairing itself is build- 
ing and repairing that organ or part of the body 
to which it belongs. One of the astonishing and 
amazing peculiarities of the man-machine is in the 
fact it is made of living mechanics — of builders — 
and each builder is at work building itself. 

In what we call table-foods are the building ma- 
terials, and feeding is supplying these tiny builders 
with building materials, which they obtain from 
food after it has been digested and absorbed into 
the blood. Some chemical changes are effected by 
the tiny builders in changing foods to bones, tissues, 
muscles, nerves, etc.; but none that interfere with 
the requirements of Nature's physical law, as stated 
above. Now, as this wonderful, astonishing, mar- 
velously made machine called man is composed of 
more than a dozen different chemical elements (some 
number of which are always found in combination), 
and as the tiny builders (the cells) constitute the 
larger part of a man's body, it is evident that each 
cell is composed of several of the chemical elements 
of which a body is composed; but not all cells of 
the same elements. Therefore these cells (the build- 
ers) need to be fed such variety of table food (and 



NATURB AXD MAX. 53 

drink) as contain all the chemical elements of an en- 
tire human body. To deprive the body/of any one 
of its chemical elements or composition will, in time, 
cause serious and fatal disease. As the human body — 
all its marvelous machinery — is always wearing out, 
it ought always to be undergoing repair, which is 
accomplished by feeding suitable foods, conveyed 
by means of the blood circulation to every part of 
the entire body. 

The Infant. — Beginning with the infant, whose 
chemical composition or elements^are the same as 
those of the adult, except that they are in their 
least or but little developed state: It is a miniature 
human being — a machine composed of many ma- 
chines — a marvelous structure of intricate parts com- 
posed of countless millions of cells, which, by in- 
creasing their size and their numbers to billions, 
cause it to grow and develop into physical manhood 
or womanhood. As his machine-frame of bones and 
cartilage and all its parts — its many co-operating 
machines — are to be enlarged and developed or built, 
there must be a constant and uniform periodical 
supply of building materials, supplied in foods chem- 
ically the same as those of his various parts. Some 
foods make bone, some tissues, some nerves, some 
muscles, others fat, and so on. A fat-producing 
food does not produce bone, nor does lime (a bone- 
producer) make fat. The infant feeds on milk, 
which consists largely of chemical elements like those 
of his material self. Milk is both the most con- 
venient and the most suitable diet for an infant, 
and is excellent food during childhood and youth. 

Table Foods. — It is learned by chemical analyses 
that table foods, in usual variety, contain all the 
elements of which the human body and limbs are 
composed. Some foods contain a much greater va- 
riety and larger per cent of important food elements 
than others, a fact which makes some food far more 



54 NATURE AND MAN. 

valuable than another. Though the cereal grains, 
as wheat, rye, oats, barley, etc., are very similar 
in their composition and are all, in a general way, 
perfect food materials, yet wheat may be called 
the most nearly complete in its ability to act as a 
food substance for man. Wheat contains the food 
elements enumerated below, and in about the right 
proportions to feed, build, and repair all the ma- 
chinery of the material man. But whole-wheat or 
graham flour must be used to obtain the entire food 
value of wheat. The important constituent elements 
or composition of wheat are: water or moisture, 
potash, lime, iron, phosphoric acid, sand, fat, fiber, 
bran, protein or nitrogenous constituents similar in 
character to the white of eggs, and starch and a 
very small amount of sugar. Of these, the fat or 
oily constituents, chiefly in the germ of the grain, 
and the bran and the fibrous portions are not in 
white flour. 

Nature Plainly Objects. 

The eating or drinking of anything that does not 
contain elements chemically the same as some of 
those of the human body, or of food in which food 
elements have fermented or decayed, will corrupt 
the blood and disease, to some extent, any person; 
because such matter is utterly unlike and foreign 
to the composition of the human body and, when 
taken into one's stomach, trespasses upon and vio- 
lates physical laws of Nature. The feeding, build- 
ing, and repairing qualities of the best foods are se- 
riously impaired or entirely destroyed by fermen- 
tation. The cells — the millions of tiny builders — 
have no use for material so unlike their own com- 
position and are irritated, inflamed, damaged, and 
even destroyed by fermented drinks, such as intox- 
icating wine, beer, whiskey, gin, rum — in short, any 
beverage containing alcohol. The word intoxicate 



NATURE AND MAN. 55 

means ' ' poison, ' ' or ' ' to poison . ' ' All such things are 
obnoxious, repugnant, and antagonistic to normal 
physical human nature. A person may not feel or 
notice the corrupting effects of damaged foods or 
alcoholic drinks for some time; nor can he see the 
hour-hand of a clock or watch move, and yet his 
failure to see it move is no proof that it does not. 
We know that it does move. And we know, too, 
that substances, whether solid or fluid, foreign to 
the elements or composition of the human body, 
do irritate and corrupt one's blood and -flesh, and pro- 
duce disease. None of the alcoholic drinks are foods, 
but are irritants; and so neither build nor repair 
any part of man. The good food elements of farm 
products, as of corn, rye, barley, or of any other 
farm product used in making alcohol and drinks 
that contain alcohol, are destroyed by processes of 
fermentation, leaving no food, no building material 
for the little builders. As a good mechanic has no 
use for any such material as is not used in the sort 
of work he is doing; so, too, of human cells, they 
have no use for alcoholic fluids of any sort. Na- 
ture uses no alcohol, whiskey, beer, brandy, rum, 
gin, or fermented wine in making man; and the 
little cells, which are Nature's builders, have abso- 
lutely no use for and no need of any such bever- 
ages, and she plainly manifests her displeasure when 
imposed on, by irritating and inflaming the cells of 
the skin of dram-drinkers, producing an abnormal, 
unnatural red nose, face, and neck. 

Table foods and drinks (milk or hot water being 
excellent as drink) are the only building and re- 
building materials Nature needs to feed, stimulate, 
strengthen, and support the material man. And 
Nature provides one way, and only one way, of get- 
ting building materials (foods and drinks) to the 
millions and billions of living cells, the tiny build- 
ers, and that one and only way is by the stomach 



5 6 NATURE AND MAN. 

and intestines. By this route all needful supplies 
are absorbed into the blood circulation and quickly 
carried to every bone, cartilage, muscle, nerve, and 
tissue; and every hungry cell is fed and watered. 
Any other way or method of reaching or affecting 
the nerves or any part of the body is abnormal, 
unnatural, and violates decreed physical laws of 
Nature. 

Chewing and Smoking Tobacco. 

Chewing and smoking are radically abnormal 
and unnatural habits, and decrease happiness by 
creating an abnormal, unnatural craving and long- 
ing for tobacco. And this desire and longing for to- 
bacco and tobacco-smoking is caused by a chron- 
ically diseased condition of the nerve-cells, and makes 
the unfortunate victim of such habits unhappy — as 
unhappy as a man thirsting for water — when, ow- 
ing to circumstances, it is not convenient for him 
to smoke or chew. These habits do not increase 
the comfort and happiness of any man, but have 
robbed millions of men of their birth-right to the 
comfort and happiness Nature contributes when her 
laws are not violated, as stated above. 



PHYSICAL APPETITE AND HUNGER. 



Nature's Demand for Food. 

Physical appetite and hunger are normal condi- 
tions of the material man. Appetite exists in its 
normal condition when table foods taste good and 
eating is enjoyed. Hunger is the condition when 
the cells of the body have exhausted from the blood 
their supply of building and repairing material and 
need a new supply. The desire (hunger) for food, 
which a well person feels periodically, is the demand 
that the cells (Nature's agents) make for more food. 



NATURE AND MAN. 57 

When the demand is answered by providing a new 
supply, the hunger ceases until the supply is again 
exhausted. And thus, as often as the supply of 
food elements is consumed, the tiny cells set up their 
cry for another supply. Perceive, hunger is evidence 
of the active and healthful condition of the cells; 
and, as the body is composed of cells, it indicates 
a healthy body. But when the material man can 
not choose a few articles from the following list of 
table foods — meat, chicken, eggs, butter, fish, po- 
tatoes, bread, pancakes, milk, syrup, honey, sugar, 
cream, coffee, tea, and water — about ninety times 
a month, his appetite is poor and indicates a dis- 
eased or unhealthy condition of his body. 



PERIODICAL SLEEP. 



A Normal Condition Necessary to Health 
and Life. 

Sleep, periodically, is a normal condition and as 
necessary to health and life as food and drink. I 
copy the following matter from my book "Man: 
Body, Mind, and Soul": 

"Sleep is rest, the condition of inactivity and 
repose in which the brain and entire nervous sys- 
tem share and recuperate. Sleep is the condition 
of rest and recuperation, during which there is more 
or less complete suspension of consciousness and of 
the power of voluntary action. It is an important 
normal condition, occurring periodically, indicating 
specially repose of the brain and nervous system. 
It is the only form of complete and general rest." 

While man is awake, the constant activity of 
the mind and its mental operations keep the brain 
and, more or less, the whole nervous system active. 
This causes wear and tear of the nervous textures 



58 NATURE AND -MAN. 

and deposits in them of effete, thrown-off waste 
products proportional to the work done. Thus a 
large amount of physical energy is being constantly 
expended; and this, too, more rapidly than it is 
reproduced. Wakefulness is a specific, positive con- 
dition, in which energy is consumed more rapidly 
than it is restored. During this period of activity 
a portion of the animal tissues are worn out and 
the waste, dead matter accumulates faster than it 
is carried off, by the blood, out of the way. 

Sleep is the opposite condition, the negative of 
awake, being a state of general repose, during which 
the expenditure of vital force and energy is reduced 
to the smallest amount consistent with safety to life. 
The brain is now inactive, consciousness and will- 
power suspended. The movements of the heart, 
lungs, and of other organs that perform either dy- 
namic or secretory functions are each less active dur- 
ing sleep. Nutrition and restoration of the nerv- 
ous tissues go on more rapidly than the wear and 
waste, so that there is an accumulation of vital force 
and energy preparatory for waking and the next 
period of activity. 

Among the more distant causes of sleep may be 
mentioned the activity of the brain and nervous 
system, causing wear and tear exceeding during 
wakeful activity nerve - nutrition and restoration, 
bringing absolute necessity for a periodical cessation 
of physical activity, to avoid actual destruction of 
the brain and nervous system. But for the imme- 
diate cause of sleep, I think that is to be found in 
the diminished supply of blood in a fatigued brain. 
Activity brings an increased supply of blood to any 
organ and keeps up the supply; but a f ter a time 
fatigue comes, first to one part of the brain and 
then to another, the hlood-supply is diminished, and 
sleep comes, first to one part of the brain, then to 
another, and ought to have its way. Sleep is a physi- 



NATURB AND MAN, 59 

ological function of a healthy nervous system, and 
ought to continue, in each individual case, until the 
effete, worn-out matter — portions of worn-out tis- 
sues — is carried off by the proper channels (the kid- 
neys being one of these), and all wear, waste, and 
energy restored. When, during sleep, all this mar- 
velous work has been accomplished, sleep will have 
been successful, and awaking occurs. 

An unreasonably short period of sleep, as four 
or five hours, is stated by some as sufficient time for 
complete recuperation; but in far more cases seven 
or eight hours are necessary to restore full bodily en- 
ergy. Age, sex, and other considerations, as of tem- 
perament, climate, habits, etc., have their influence. 
Thus, in childhood and youth, when the processes 
of bodily growth require specially large expendi- 
tures of energy, sleep needs to be frequent and long- 
continued. In adults, persons of full growth, where 
wear and tear only require to be restored, less sleep 
is required. But again, in old age, when repair is 
more slowly and imperfectly effected, more sleep is 
necessary to maintain health and vigor. When a 
person awakes, after sleeping a sufficient number of 
hours, still feeling jaded, worn, and exhausted, there 
is indication of disease and consequent failure of 
the animal textures to successfully do their work 
of reparation. Habitual "late nights" and volun- 
tary forced loss of sleep establishes the habit of too 
short sleep, which, in time, is sure to be followed 
by nervous inability to sleep, insomnia, nervous 
prostration, loss of beauty of complexion and of 
flesh, brain-exhaustion, and (shall I say?) prema- 
ture old age, and possibly insanity. The average 
loss of one hour's sleep amounts to a loss of forty- 
five nights' sleep, of eight hours each, in one year, and 
will bring on nervousness, headaches, rheumatism, 
pale face, gray hair, and old age more rapidly than 



60 NATURE AND MAN. 

two hours added to each day's labor. Ah! the 
government of Nature does not fail to inflict severe 
penalties for violations of its laws. 



MOUTH-BREATHING. 



Its Pernicious Consequences. 

A too common and very damaging habit is that 
of breathing through the partly opened mouth, in- 
stead of the nostrils. Everybody ought to keep the 
mouth shut and breathe through the nose, which 
does important work in connection with breathing. 
Air, when inhaled through the nose, as it ought to 
be, is so warmed in passing over the blood-warming 
tissues of the nasal cavities as to render its tem- 
perature (in cold weather) nearly equal to that of 
the body. Another important work is the moist- 
ening of air as it passes through the nostrils, which 
is necessary; and, too, air, in passing through the 
nose, is filtered — freed of dust, etc. Air breathed 
through the open mouth is neither properly warmed 
nor moistened nor filtered. Air inhaled through the 
partly opened mouth is cold, dry, and irritating; and, 
coming in contact with the larynx, trachea, and 
the bronchial tubes, often causes inflammation of the 
throat, hoarseness, cough, enlarged tonsils, and loss of 
voice. An abnormally short and thick upper lip, pro- 
jecting upper teeth, and defective hearing result from 
open -mouth breathing. 

The nose and nasal cavities are decreed agencies 
for conducting air to and from the lungs, and any 
other way is abnormal and punished by diseased 
conditions, to say nothing of the unnatural and awk- 
ward appearance of one who makes a yawning fly- 
trap of his mouth and lips. 



NATURE AND MAN. 61 

THE WONDERFUL MENTAL MAN. 



A Man without Bones, Flesh, and Blood. 



His Marvelous Faculties and Wonderful Powers. 

We are astonished by the magnificent beauty 
and grandeur of material things; and we marvel 
at the wondrous wisdom and the omnipotent power 
of the Creator of the material man. But the world, 
with all its fascinating beauty and wonderful mech- 
anism of material things combined, is not nearly 
the best nor the loveliest nor the most desirable of 
created things. There is another part of the aston- 
ishing works of the marvelous Creator that is far 
more important and far more lovable than all ma- 
terial creation. It is the mental, spiritual man — 
in his normal (natural), unperverted state— the im- 
material (not of matter), invisible man, called mind. 
Beautiful, charmingly beautiful, are the visible, tan- 
gible, animate, and inanimate material things of this 
magnificent world. Surely cold is the heart and dull 
the head that can gaze upon the charming, wooing 
material beauties planned and made by an omnipo- 
tent Creator and not be awakened, incited, and stim- 
ulated to keener, livelier appreciation and greater 
admiration of such things and of Him who planned 
and created them! In their adaptability to please 
and delight mankind is proof, positive proof, of their 
Creator's design to woo and win the affections and 
love of His creatures. But the mental man — the 
human mind, intellect, reason, thought, sympathy, 
admiration, affections, and love — these things that 
are invisible, immaterial, mental (spiritual), are far 
more beautiful and far more lovable than anything 
so comparatively coarse as visible, tangible, weigh- 
able matter. The love of children and of clean, 



6a NATURE AND MAN. 

pure-hearted men and women as far exceed in merit 
and value all material things as the brightest noon- 
day sun exceeds the glimmering light of the small- 
est and most distant twinkling star. While the 
wondrous and marvelous things of physical crea- 
tion would seem to be matchless; yet, in the cre- 
ation of mind, the Creator has far exceeded the 
wondrous things of physical creation. 

It is this marvelous structure of intelligences 
that I call the mental man, and it is the same won- 
drous mind as those (minds) that governed our 
fathers and our grandfathers and great-grandfathers 
on and on back to the time of Adam and Eve. 
And I know of no sufficient reason to doubt that 
this same marvelous mind will continue to govern 
mankind during the future generations. It is the 
mind which some people call the ''objective mind," 
and is the mind about which we need to be most 
concerned, because it is our master and is liable to 
be perverted and go wrong, bring ruin upon itself 
and damage mankind. 

When the Omnipotent had created the charming 
faculties of mind (the mental man) and, finally, had 
created the mighty faculty of love, and had willed 
that it should govern, it would seem that in the 
unequaled and matchless goodness of love was the 
crowning work and the limit of His wisdom and 
creative power, if there were any limit to His wis- 
dom and power. Oh, how icy cold and unnatural 
is a man without inspiring love for mankind! and 
oh, how bad, how poor is a man without love of 
humanity! Millions of people have sadly experi- 
enced that without love and loyalty from whom 
love and loyalty are due life seems not worth liv- 
ing, except it be to live and work to benefit other 
people, as we ought, and as thousands are doing. 

Then let us study and analyze this wonderful 
mental man, in whom is love, and all the elements 



NATURE AND MAN. 63 

of ideal manhood. As the word man, as I much 
use it in this book, is of both genders and includes 
both sexes, one analysis will suffice for both male 
and female. I assume that the mental man is an 
immaterial, spiritual being; and desire the reader 
to note that the word immaterial, much used, means 
not of material or matter, and that material means 
of matter. 

His Faculties and Nature. — We will have a far 
more intelligent and far more satisfactory mental 
view of the invisible, immaterial mental man by 
having a definite and comprehensive knowledge of 
each of his marvelous mental faculties (powers) , and 
far more practical, useful knowledge of their normal 
and their abnormal nature. The usefulness and the 
value of anything material comes by practical knowl- 
edge of its nature. And this fact is no less true of 
mind. Knowledge is a product of experience. But 
all knowledge obtained by the personal experience 
of any one person during a lifetime is very limited, 
and comes too late to save the person from dam- 
aging and irreparable mistakes. Wherefore it is the 
knowledge that has been obtained by the recorded 
or historic experiences of millions of people that is 
absolutely necessary to inform, enlighten, and up- 
lift each succeeding generation to a higher and still 
higher, more useful, and purer sphere of life. Re- 
member, truth is things as they were and things as 
they are. It is absolute truth that no person can 
know much of what is known who knows only what 
he or she has learned by personal experience. It 
is because many people are too stupid or too self- 
sufficient to learn by the experiences of other people, 
that so many are incompetent managers, and so 
many are caught in snares, traps, and pitfalls, the 
like of many of which have been used for centuries 
to rob the unsuspecting and the ignorant of money. 
property, and virtue. 



64 NATURE AND MAN. 

But of all sorts and degrees of ignorance,, there 
may be no other nearly so productive of evil con- 
sequences as the now-prevailing ignorance of psy- 
chology — of the mental man, of the nature of the 
many faculties of mind. While the material man 
(the man of matter) is a physical structure of bones, 
muscles, tissues, nerves, etc., in which is vested his 
physical life, strength, and force, the mental man 
is a spiritual structure or organism of intelligences, 
not of matter, but of many faculties (powers), in 
which are vested his spiritual life and executive abil- 
ity — his intellectual, secular, and moral forces. 

The vast and like importance of each and all 
the many parts both of the material man and of 
the mental man can best be comprehended by anal- 
ogy or comparison. The material man is composed 
of many physical parts, as the head, heart, lungs, 
arteries, veins, brain, nerves, stomach, liver, kid- 
neys, bowels, legs, feet, arms, hands, etc. Each of 
all these, and many other parts, has its important 
work to do, necessary to keep the one man in a 
normal, healthy physical condition. So, too, the 
mental man is composed of many mental parts 
(mental powers), called faculties, each having its 
vastly important work to do, necessary to keep 
the mental man in a normal, harmonious psycho- 
logical condition. 

Many people comprehend the physical nature of 
the material man and the importance of keeping 
each of his organs in a normal, healthy condition. 
But most people do not know the psychological na- 
ture of the mental faculties well enough to compre- 
hend the vast importance of keeping them in a 
normal, harmonious condition. 

Mental Faculties. 

Some of the secular and business faculties of 
the mental man are: intellect, intuition, conception, 



NATURE AND MAN. 65 

thought, reason, meditation, perception, memory, 
will (volition), energy, decision, industry, courage, 
aspiration, love, pleasure, happiness, sorrow, and 
regret. Some of his moral faculties are: sympa- 
thy, kindness, respect, esteem, appreciation, friend- 
ship, love, fidelity, benevolence, honesty, truth, con- 
scientiousness, sincerity, purity, prudence, modesty, 
chastity, virtue, temperance, sobriety, abstinence 
from evil, self-respect, faith, hope, pleasure, hap- 
piness, sorrow, grief and repentance, and hatred of 
evil. These, his mental faculties, I conceive, are 
some of the elements or composition of the mental 
man. They are the sources of mental force and, 
when normal (unperverted) , are in precise line, ac- 
cord, and harmony with the mental laws of Nature, 
and incline and predispose him to love and defend 
the principles that constitute such laws. 

Perceive, while the material man is a living me- 
chanical structure of physical forces without mind; 
the mental man is a living spiritual structure of men- 
tal forces of mind. We know that the elements (the 
composition) of the material man are of living mat- 
ter — that each element is alive, possessing animal 
life, instinct, and physical powers; and we ought 
not to doubt that the elements (or composition) of 
the mental man are of living spirit (not matter), 
and that each element is a faculty possessing spiiit- 
ual life, reason, and spiritual powers. As it is not 
convenient to write or talk about anything that has 
no definite name, I found it necessary to enumer- 
ate and name the elements or faculties composing 
the mental man, and to enumerate and name some 
of the mental principles^which, being laws^of|Na- 
ture can not be violated without a penalty follow- 
ing, to punish the violator. The name of each fac- 
ulty indicates its normal nature and also the name 
of the law with which it harmonizes. Each faculty 
is designed and adapted to keep its owner good and 



66 NATURE AND MAN. 

in accord with one of Nature's mental laws, called 
by the same name as the faculty. Thus the fac- 
ulty of honesty is in accord with Nature's moral 
law of honesty. In short, I give one set only of 
names for the mental faculties and the mental laws 
of Nature. When a faculty is normal, it is a men- 
tal force in accord and harmony with moral prin- 
ciples, and doing good. When a faculty is abnor- 
mal, it still is no less a mental force, but out of 
accord with some moral principle, and doing wrong. 

Nature's Mental Laws. 

Men have entertained many differing opinions 
of the mental man, and, whether they consider him 
material, spiritual or corporal, Nature goes right on 
and on enforcing her beautiful laws, heaping re- 
warding comforts and blessings on the Creator's 
loyal subjects and inflicting and punishing millions 
of disloyal; and not even one of Nature's princi- 
ples is repealed or in any way modified by men's 
opinions. Millions of men and women, stupidly 
disloyal to the Creator and to their own true, nor- 
mal nature, shut their eyes mentally and refuse to 
see and profit by the sad experience of other mil- 
lions who are afflicted and suffering Nature's pen- 
alties — mental and physical. 

Call the mental man whatever you please — 
whether you consider him material or immaterial — 
he is as much subject to mental laws as the mate- 
rial man is to physical laws. The mental laws of 
Nature are as numerous as Nature's physical laws, 
and as real as the laws of gravitation or of contrac- 
tion by cold and expansion by heat; and penalties 
are inflicted upon every violator of mental laws, 
without the aid of human witness, judge, or jury. 
Mental laws are distinct and different from Nature's 
physical laws in that they consist of mental (not 
physical) principles, and pertain to and concern 



NATURE AND MAN. 67 

mind (not matter), and affect directly the mental 
man and have no reference to the material man. 
The mental man is the principal of the two-fold 
man (see Index), and the material man, whom I 
have analyzed, is the other fold, and is the servant 
of the principal. Their relationship is, as it were, 
that of master and servant. The mental man, be- 
ing the master, is personally responsible, morally, 
for whatever is done by the material man. 

Love Governs. — Every normal faculty or element 
of the mental man is governed by natural love for 
the principle or law of Nature for which it stands; 
and every abnormal or perverted faculty is gov- 
erned by perverted love for things and ways and 
means that oppose the moral principle for which 
it did stand before it was perverted. 

One can easily know, if he will, what is a moral 
law, by observing the penalty which, sooner or lat- 
er, follows the violation of a certain moral prin- 
ciple; and he may know the penalty by its follow- 
ing the violation and punishing the violator. No 
mental principle, designed to protect the purity of 
mind, can be violated without corrupting the mind 
of the violator. The moral laws of Nature are de- 
signed to restrain and punish the disloyal, but not 
to govern the loyal; as, in his normal nature, man 
is governed by the moral principles of his own na- 
ture. Being in full sympathy, love, and accord with 
Nature's moral laws, he is not governed except by 
the laws or inclinations of his own nature — by his 
hearty free-will loyalty to moral principles. The 
normal man is one whose spirit and affections are 
in accord with his own normal and good nature. 
He is the ideal man. Thus the ideal man is gov- 
erned by or in accord with the moral principles of 
his own nature, and not by civil laws. 

Man is, as I have said, good normally. With 
his composition — his mental faculties — predisposing 



68 NATURE AND MAN. 

him to good thoughts and good deeds, how can he 
be bad except by a great change in his normal na- 
ture, caused by mental corruption? Mind (the men- 
tal man) is as easily corrupted by mind corruption 
as is the material man by corrupting matter. 

MENTAL HEREDITY. 



Its Wonderful, Marvelous Powers. 



Superior and Inferior Minds. 

The spiritual or mental composition or elements 
of the infant, whether normal or abnormal, are the 
same as those of its father and mother, but in their 
least developed state. He is a marvelous spiritual 
structure — an invisible spiritual being. He inherits 
nothing from his material parents, as flesh and blood 
transmit no element to mind or spirit. As, under 
the decreed laws governing creation, every fruitful 
thing produces of its kind, therefore flesh and blood 
neither "count" nor "tell" in the creation of the 
mental man. Because of this law of Nature, there 
are many thousands of parents who are remarkably 
well developed in bone, muscle, and flesh and are 
powerful men and women physically, whose chil- 
dren are far below the mediocrity or average intel- 
lectually of children whose parents are weak phys- 
ically. It is evident that under the inflexible laws 
of Nature the mental infant is in possession of ele- 
ments and mental qualities of the same sort and 
character as those of one or the other of its parents, 
and that it is as good and as bad, in its nature, as 
the parents were when it was conceived. Under 
Nature's laws, so remarkably well enforced, par- 
ents can no more transmit to their posterity a 
mental quality or element not possessed by one of 
them than an acorn can create an apple-tree. 



NATURE AND MAX. 69 

In obedience and loyalty to Nature's laws gov- 
erning creation, the mental infants of parents who 
are truly and in fact Christians, and therefore in 
full accord and harmony with Nature, are as good 
as Adam and Eve were when they were placed in 
the Garden of Eden. If neither of a child's parents 
is willfully (willingly) bad, their children are men- 
tally pure and faultless until corrupted; and, in my 
opinion, a large per cent of toiling men and women 
are neither willfully nor willingly bad. But it is 
awfully unfortunate for hundreds of thousands of 
children that their parents are desperately corrupt 
and have transmitted evil inclinations to their chil- 
dren. Because of these scientific facts and differ- 
ing inheritance, there is a vast difference in the 
amount of inherited mental strength of each con- 
stituent element or faculty of the mental man from 
birth; a difference that continues through a whole 
lifetime, giving one person far greater force of mind, 
will, and character than is possessed by other per- 
sons — a difference in mental capacity for good- 
ness or for badness. Unfortunately, it is a capacity 
which, if of bad parentage, may do great harm to 
humanity. It is not a difference resulting from a 
difference of physical vigor and strength of the ma- 
terial infant, not a consequence of stronger or weak- 
er physical body and brain of the two-fold infant, 
but is an inherited mental difference, which, in the 
stronger, manifests itself in the thoughtfufness of 
the small child, showing eager desire to learn about 
things it does not yet comprehend. And this su- 
periority of mind is seen in conversation with the 
adult, and manifested in much the same way as by 
the child. Many thoughtful, intelligent questions, 
evidently reaching out for sensible and useful in- 
formation, followed immediately by silence long 
enough for thought and some meditation on an 
answer worth consideration, indicates a superior 



7 o NATURE AND MAN. 

mind. Few or no intelligent, searching questions, 
little or no listening, much talk, little or no bright 
and instructive thought expressed in conversation, 
and a face too smiling or laughing when it ought 
to scowl or frown at immodesty, rudeness, and im- 
propriety, are each strong indications of a very in- 
ferior mind. As to talk: conversation is the oral 
exchange of thoughts. Many intelligent people like 
to talk, but have sense enough to restrain their 
tongues from monopolizing time. 

The mental infant inherits from the minds of 
its parents many mental peculiarities and oddities, 
besides intellectual strength and weakness. It in- 
herits abnormally weak or strong passions, temper, 
emotions, likes and dislikes, etc. It inherits from 
its mother what were or may have been temporary 
conditions of her mind at a certain period, as con- 
ditions of sadness and of cheerfulness. A friend, 
who has two sons, young men, one of whom is 
bright, happy, and cheerful all day long and the 
other dull, gloomy, and seemingly sad and unhappy 
all day long without any apparent cause, told me 
that during the nine months preceding the birth 
of the sad and gloomy son he was in financial dis- 
tress, and that his wife, the mother of the gloomy 
son, was constantly troubled, worried, gloomy, and 
sad; but prosperity and happiness came to his home, 
and during the corresponding period preceding the 
birth of the cheerful son his home was one of joy, 
and his same wife cheerful and happy all day long. 
Some are born murderers. Ah! yes, she transmits 
tendencies to lewdness, vice, lasciviousness, etc., if 
such evil desires are entertained and control her 
mind and affections during the certain period. 



NATURE AND MAN. , 71 



MENTAL FOODS. 



A Thought Is Mental Food. 



Feeding and Developing Faculties or Powers 

of Mind — A Mental Man the Product 

of His Thought. 



School-Books and Schools. 

Mind (which is the mental man), tinder favor- 
able conditions, is always growing and expanding, 
but never fully grown ; therefore a supply of mental 
food is always needed to maintain his never-ceasing 
growth. Notice this vast difference in the nature of 
mind and of body in "regard to mental and phys- 
ical growth. There is a big difference in the sizes 
of material men, but this difference is not nearly 
so great as the difference in the sizes of mental 
men, some of whom are giants of monster size and 
mental powder acquired by growth and development 
of the elements or faculties of mind. As the men- 
tal man never stops growing and expanding while 
he is being well fed on good mental foods, what 
his size will be depends on his mental appetite and 
the continuance of supplies of suitable (moral and 
instructive) mental foods. The mental infant must 
be developed by mental foods before he can become 
a man. All his elements — the mental faculties of 
which he is composed — are in their least or but 
little developed state, as little developed as are the 
elements of his physical body; and he is as weak 
and deficient of mental force and capacity as the 
infant of bones, flesh, and blood is of physical force 
and capacity. 



72 NATURE AND MAN. 

Milk, bread, and meat will develop the infant 
of material — of bones, flesh, and blood. But table 
foods do not feed the mental elements of a baby 
or man. It is failure to feed aright the mental or 
spiritual man, aside from the material man, that 
produces the lean, scrawny, emaciated, and dwarfed 
mental skeletons, of whom there are many. Mental 
foods are as necessary to develop the elements of 
the mental man as table foods are to develop the 
elements of the material man. A vast number of 
mental faculties are the elements or composition of 
the mental man; and each faculty will be dwarfed 
or perverted if not well and timely fed, individually, 
beginning with the infant, who has inherited, from 
the mental elements of its parents, scores of ele- 
ments, all like, in their nature, those of its parents, 
and each in its least or but little developed state. 
These elements grow and develop but little before 
the child is old enough to think and meditate. But 
from the time that he thinks, the elements of his 
mind feed on thoughts — on what he thinks. 

Thought is mental food. Eating bread is feeding 
elements of the material man, and bread is the food. 
So, too, thinking a thought is feeding an element of 
the mental man, and thought — that which is thought, 
as an idea, mental conception, or opinion entertained 
and approved by one's mind — is the food. Thoughts 
differ widely in their nature and their influences as 
elements of mental foods. Some thoughts develop 
secular and business faculties and capacity; others, 
moral faculties and capacity. Thoughts about busi- 
ness and secular matters, and concerning no moral 
principle or question as to what is right morally, 
feed and develop business and secular faculties; but 
any thoughts about business or other matters in 
which a moral principle is concerned, and a question 
as to what is right morally is regarded, feed and 
develop moral faculties and moral capacity. Table 



NATURE AND MAN. 73 

foods develop and strengthen the material man, 
while mental foods develop and strengthen the spirit- 
ual or mental man. 

Every mental man is as really the product Jof 
thought as the material man is the product of table 
foods. And if he is not as good as he ought to be, 
it is because his thoughts have not been as good 
as they ought to have been. If a man's daily men- 
tal foods are clean and pure morally, his spiritual 
body or mind is clean, uncorrupt, and strong mor- 
ally. But, if his daily thoughts, which are mental 
food, are unclean and impure, his spiritual body is 
corrupt and weak morally. Wherefore the mental 
man is the product of his thoughts as really as the 
material man is the product of table foods. 

Utterly unalike in composition and force, the 
visible elements of the material man, being of mat- 
ter, feed on matter, which produces matter and 
physical force; while the invisible elements of the 
mental man, being of spirit or mind, feed on thought, 
and his elements produce spiritual force. Thus ma- 
terial foods feed and develop the man of matter; 
and thoughts, being of mind (not matter), feed and 
develop the man of mind. Bread and meat of the 
right sort feed the material man and develop his 
physical muscles, nerves, and strength; but it is 
thought of the right sort that feeds the mental man 
and develops his spiritual muscles and nerves and 
his intellectual and moral strength. While corrupt 
table foods disease and weaken the elements of the 
material man, corrupt food-thoughts do not weaken 
the elements of the mental man, but corrupt his 
moral reason and pervert his will, affections, and 
love, and turn his faculties against whatever is right 
morally. Notice this very significant difference in 
the effects of corrupt material and mental foods, 
indicating longer life for the mental than for the 
material elements. Because of these facts, it is not 



74 NATURE AND MAN. 

uncommon that, on a death-bed, the mental fac- 
ulties are perfectly normal up to the time of the 
death of the material man; and these things in- 
dicate widely differing and distinct natures and lives 
of the body and mind. 

Mental Strength by Development. 

Strength and force, whether mental or physical, 
is acquired by development: physical strength by 
developing bones and muscles; mental strength by 
developing mental faculties. The mental man's 
strength and force lies in the mental elements or 
faculties of which he is composed as really as the 
material man's strength is in his bones and muscles. 

The more nearly perfect the development of his 
mental faculties, the stronger he will be. If a child's 
normal faculties, both the secular and the moral, be 
largely developed, he will be strong intellectually 
and morally. A child's faculties, secular, social, and 
moral, are very numerous; and, to become the ele- 
ments of an ideal man or woman, each faculty must 
be largely developed by suitable and timely feeding 
of each. Each mental faculty is of a nature dif- 
fering in some way from that of another, and each 
has its own junction and work to do and feeds on 
elements of thought of a nature like its own. To 
deprive any one of the mental faculties of thought- 
food of its normal nature will result in non-develop- 
ment, unless corrupting mental food be obtained, 
followed by perversion and corrupt development, 
which produces immoral affections and love. Ihe 
development of one's secular and business faculties 
is important to aid him to accumulate necessary 
money and property; but the large development 
of his moral faculties is vastly more important than 
wealth in money and property. Most important of 
all developments is that of one's faculties of moral 
reason, will, affection, and love; each of these in 
line and accord with all moral principles, because 



NATURE AND MAN. 75 

moral principles are the higher laws, and are re- 
spected, reverenced, and loved by everybody whose 
moral faculties are rightly developed. When the 
faculty of love is not largely developed for moral 
principles, there is very great danger of its being 
perverted and thus becoming abnormal. There are 
many thousands of children whose moral faculties 
or powers are so dwarfed, starved, and weak mor- 
ally, by parental neglect, that they will be easily 
perverted when they go from home and become as- 
sociated with immoral persons. And the unfaithful 
parents will be accountable! 

Love governs mankind. Love ought to be re- 
strained from error and regulated to some extent 
by reason; but in many cases the faculty of love 
seems to be much stronger than that of reason, and 
seriously misleads persons over whom it has too 
great power. When morality is violated, love leads 
to vice and ruin. As a man's moral faculties are, in 
fact, the higher law of his nature, when unperverted, 
all his other faculties are subordinate. Wherefore a 
man's reason, affections, love, and will, when normal, 
are subordinate to and controlled by his moral fac- 
ulties. When one's reason, will, affections, and love 
are not controlled by moral principles, it is because 
his affections are perverted. 

The moral principles are moral laws of Nature, 
decreed by an omniscient Creator; and are, no doubt, 
as old as the creation of man. They are re-enforced 
by the New Testament, and are the only safe, cor- 
rect, and infallible guide to mankind in all the af- 
fairs of life. No man ever went wrong in a matter, 
consideration, or affair in which he was guided by 
moral principles. It is astonishing that rules for 
the guidance of mankind, so good as moral prin- 
ciples, have enemies and opponents. But, in fact, 
every moral principle has millions of bitter and' de- 
termined enemies and opponents; and most of these 



76 NATURE AND MAN. 

millions of opponents are people whose moral fac- 
ulties were not fed, as they ought to have been, 
during childhood and youth, on a variety of moral 
foods, such as was necessary to awaken and de- 
velop the amount of moral love, backbone, muscle, 
nerve, and courage required to protect them against 
the evil and perverting influences of the opponents 
of moral laws and to save them from perversion, 
and consequently they are perverts. Truth is strong- 
er than fiction ! 

Nature of Mental Foods. 
As men are governed by their affections and love, 
the only way possible to fortify them against the 
disloyal and corrupting influences of perverts is by 
strengthening their affections for whatever is right 
morally, by the development of greater love for the 
moral laws. In the world of mind, as in the world 
of matter, every productive thing begets its kind 
and is fed and developed by food of its kind and 
nature. Therefore, under the mental laws of Na- 
ture, thought in accord with reasonableness begets 
and develops reasonableness; anger begets and de- 
velops anger; sympathy begets and develops sym- 
pathy; love begets and develops love; honesty be- 
gets and develops honesty; friendship begets and 
develops friendship; kindness begets and develops 
kindness; dislike begets and develops dislike; ha- 
tred begets and develops hatred; dishonesty be- 
gets and develops dishonesty; selfishness begets and 
develops selfishness; vice begets and develops vice; 
and virtue begets and develops virtue. Thus the 
sentiment or principle involved in a thought is its 
food element, and indicates the nature of its influ- 
ence, whether it be moral or immoral. An element 
of table food feeds and strengthens a like element 
of the human body. So, too, does an element of 
thought. If, in conversation, a thought conveyed 
has reference chiefly to and favors the moral law 



NATURE AND MAN. 77 

of truth, or truthfulness, it feeds, stimulates, and 
strengthens the mental faculty of truth, or truth- 
fulness. Every thought favorably entertained by 
one's mind is, as it were, a morsel of mental food, 
and feeds, to some extent, one or another of his 
many mental faculties. No one thought feeds all 
one's faculties; nor does any one line of thought 
pervert all. Wherefore it is the nature of an ele- 
ment of thought to feed one of its own kind. If 
moral in its nature, it feeds one of the moral fac- 
ulties; if immoral, its influence tends to mislead 
and pervert a moral faculty. Thus the faculty of 
honesty delights to feed on thoughts favoring hon- 
esty; but the same faculty, when perverted, de- 
lights in feeding on thoughts favoring dishonesty. 
The feeding of one's normal faculties, but not the 
abnormal, is co-work with Nature. The mind of 
every child ought to be fed moral food only, as 
though all its faculties were still moral and good, 
whether they be moral or immoral; as every thought 
upholding a moral principle feeds and strengthens 
the moral faculty of mind concerned, or to which 
it belongs. If a faculty has been perverted by bad 
thoughts, it may be converted by feeding it good 
thoughts. 

Right Ways of Feeding. 
Each faculty of mind possesses power to learn one 
thing at a time; power to remember, and power to 
forget one thing at a time. Instructive lessons in 
arithmetic teach the student nothing in grammar, 
and lessons in grammar teach nothing in arithmetic 
or spelling; lessons in geography teach nothing in 
other branches. All things need be studied, taught, 
and learned separately — one at a time. So, too, of 
every moral principle: each must be upheld, rec- 
ommended and taught in separate lessons. The 
larger part of one's thoughts during school life are 
secular, domestic, mercenary, and selfish, and have 



78 NATURE AND MAN. 

but little or no reference to any moral law, and con- 
sequently no moral or refining influence upon mind. 
Nearly all thought in the study of lessons in books 
used in schools and colleges — including books of 
many arts and sciences — is secular, and feeds and 
cultivates faculties of mind devoted to the subjects 
of such books, and not to questions of moral law 
or equity. Any literature that does not uphold and 
advocate a moral principle — a moral law — has ab- 
solutely no refining influence. Many thousands, per- 
haps millions, of young people have devoted years 
and years to the study of school and college books 
and literature and listening to the correspondingly 
secular verbal lessons of their teachers; while, be- 
cause of neglect to feed and develop their moral 
faculties, they became- more and more selfish and 
immoral from year to year. Thoughts and studies 
in which no moral question or principle is involved 
are neutral, or secular, and can have no effect on 
one's moral faculties, and so do not develop moral 
character. Lessons obtained from most school-books 
inform, educate, enlighten, and develop the secular 
and business faculties, but neither the moral facul- 
ties nor the moral affections of students. Young 
men and women have studied music and so cul- 
tivated their voices, ears, and fingers as to be- 
come fine musicians; while their moral faculties 
were neglected, perverted, and became grossly im- 
moral. Thought stimulates the mental man some- 
what as bread and meat do the material man, and 
incites to deeds of the same quality and nature as 
the thought. Common schools, academies, colleges, 
and universities teach what is right, as in arts, phil- 
osophy, and science — things which have little or 
no reference to moral principles and what is right, 
viewed from the moral point of view. 

Right, in the moral sense, can only be taught 
successfully by contrasting things that are right mor- 



NATURE AND MAN. 79 

ally with things that are wrong morally. No one 
posseses any useful knowledge of moral right that 
was not obtained by contrasting right and wrong. 
No one has any inspiring knowledge of the excel- 
lence of moral right that was not obtained by hold- 
ing up to mental view and contrasting right and 
wrong. How could one know and believe that right 
is better than wrong if he had not learned about 
the damaging evils of wrong ? 

No child can be successfully taught to love right 
before it has been told of and induced to hate wrong. 
Love of right and hatred of wrong make love doubly 
strong! The child learns what day is by contrasting 
light with darkness, and what cold is by contrasting 
cold and heat. No man could have any love for 
health if he did not learn about fevers, pains, and 
aches. Wherefore, in view of the above stated laws 
of Nature — of the mental nature of humanity — to de- 
velop one's faculties of moral admiration and love 
of right, justice, honor, morality, virtue, etc., moral 
right (not physical, mechanical, mathematical, or 
geographical, but moral) must be held up, and the 
good effects of right and the bad effects of wrong 
exposed to mental view, thus enabling the student 
to contrast in his mind the moral goodness of right 
and the immoral badness of wrong. By these nat- 
ural means the faculties of moral reason, admira- 
tion, and love are enlisted, and love of right and 
hatred of wrong assured. 

The Successful Teacher. 

The successful teacher, whether in the school- 
room or the private home, must regard and treat 
the mental faculties, some of them as purely intel- 
lectual and secular, and others as moral, in their 
nature and works. We know that one faculty of 
mind can be largely cultivated while another of 
the same mind is greatly neglected; and that the 
former will be largely developed and the latter 



80 NATURE AND MAN. 

much dwarfed. Use — actual, real, practical use — 
is both a mental and a physical law, affecting both 
body and mind. Thus mental foods and actual use 
are necessary to develop any one of the mental fac- 
ulties, and especially necessary in developing the 
capacity of any one of the moral faculties. These, 
especially, require use; and if not used will be weak 
and pervert; and the victim of such perversion be- 
comes selfish, unsympathetic, and cold-hearted. 

Parents depend far, far too much on schools and 
school-teachers for the instruction and development 
of the moral faculties of their young people. The 
school-room is a very busy place — the students busy 
with secular studies, and the teachers with secu- 
lar questions and classes, faithfully doing the work 
which they are employed to do. The ' ' school-marm ' ' 
is a precious thing. As a class, she perhaps has no 
equal, except the sincere, devoted, and loyal wife. 
And both her occupation and the places of her 
works are especially suitable — moral and uplifting. 

Because of five to ten years' persistent secular, 
art, and scientific studies and consequent unequal 
development of the secular and the moral faculties, 
and the latter largely neglected at the homes of 
students, we may not expect fewer convicts to oc- 
cupy the jails and penitentiaries of the United States 
during the present system of mind-development. 
The inequality of development of mental faculties 
and capacity is on the wrong side. It would be 
well for humanity if the unequal development were 
of the moral faculties. Thousands of parents are 
saying, when their sons and daughters go seriously 
wrong: "I always taught him [or her] to do right." 
And yet the truth is, millions of parents have not 
taught their children the elements of right; and, 
consequently, only a very small per cent of the 
girls and boys of to-day, at the age of twelve to 
fifteen, can enumerate the elements that constitute 



NATURE AND MAN, 81 

right and morality nor the elements that constitute 
good character, and would not be able to enumerate 
the elements of bad character, were they asked to 
do so. (See article on "Character Valuation.") 



MENTAL APPETITE AND MENTAL 
HUNGER. 



Normal Conditions to Be Cultivated. 



Be Alarmed if Mental Appetite Is Poor. 

Mental appetite and mental hunger are normal 
conditions of a good, sound mind. Mental appetite 
is normal and manifests itself when the mental man 
feels a longing desire for instructive mental foods, 
to satisf} 7 or quiet his anxiety for information. Men- 
tal hunger is intense desire for information. Thus 
keen desire for useful information is normal mental 
appetite; and hunger for the elements of one's mind 
calls for mental food. Mental appetite and mental 
hunger are conditions of the mental or spirit man; 
as natural as physical appetite and hunger of the 
material man. It is manifested by the young child 
in his many questions, seeking for information to 
feed his hungry mind. Every normal mind is of- 
ten hungry for mental food. 

Many most valuable lessons can be obtained by 
comparing things one with another. There are times 
when one does not really know, by looking at and 
considering a thing by itself, whether it is good 
enough or not. So let us compare appetites and 
see whether or not they are good enough. 

The material man's appetite would be considered 
good only when he can cheerfully choose and rel- 
ish all his meals, made up of some of the following 
articles of table foods: meat, chicken, eggs, fish, 



82 NATURE AND MAN. 

potatoes, pancakes, bread, butter, milk, syrup, hon- 
ey, sugar, cream, coffee, tea, and water. Three or 
four of these sixteen articles of food usually are the 
principal make-up of a full meal; and this diet is 
continued through a whole lifetime. Many people 
eat some of the articles in the above list as often 
as three times every day, or 1,905 times in one 
year, and would gladly and joyfully accept a chance 
to live a thousand }^ears on the same foods, and 
would grumble if they were asked to go without a 
few meals occasionally. Surely, then, the mental 
appetite of a boy or girl, or of a man or woman, 
must be very poor when he or she fails to heartily 
relish and cheerfully feed the mental faculties of 
his or her mind on clean, pure, nutritious mind- 
foods, in as good or better variety and served per- 
haps fewer than one-half as often as the material 
man gladly feeds day after day, week after week, 
month after month, and year after year, through his 
whole lifetime. 

But, while eating at more than two thousand 
different tables in many States, during the past 
seven years, I have often noticed that the condi- 
tion in which foods are served makes a vast differ- 
ence in one's appetite. The material man prefers 
much of his food served hot, and is greatly pleased 
when he has pancakes, potatoes, coffee, etc., brought 
to the table steaming hot. It is exactly so, too, 
with the mental man; he best likes his meals, es- 
pecially if of a moral nature, steaming with fervent 
(boiling) sympathy and love. So, to succeed in 
feeding the mental faculties, let every meal (every 
little lesson) be seasoned with genuine good-will, 
sympathy, and tenderness of heart, and served in 
kind-hearted and loving words. Whether the moral 
faculties of one's mind be normal or abnormal, he 
as much loves sympathy, kindness, and love as the 
material man loves the hot cakes and maple syrup. 



NATURE AND MAN. 83 

It is the teacher's good-will, tenderness of heart, 
warm sympathy, and love, together with the good 
and pure moral lessons, that co-work with Nature 
in manipulating and digesting mental foods and 
make good and strong moral character; while table 
foods make strong physical character. To produce 
men and women of good, strong moral appetites, 
begin the cultivation of their moral faculties by the 
time children are two years old; and the faithful 
mother who co- works with normal human nature, 
as suggested above, can mold the character of her 
children as really and effectively as a baker shapes 
cakes and loaves of bread. 

So vast, so comprehensive are the possibilities 
of mental power and capacity that could be devel- 
oped by the use of a greater variety of mental foods, 
suited in their nature to stimulate and develop fac- 
ulties and capacities now but slightly developed, that 
it is not probable that the capacity of any well- 
balanced mind is at all nearly developed. We know 
that the average mind possesses a mental faculty 
capable of acquiring knowledge of higher mathe- 
matics; yet only a very small per cent of minds 
have any knowledge of this science above common 
arithmetic. And this absence of such knowledge is 
clearly because of non-development. And the men- 
tal forces and capacities of the moral faculties of 
the average mind are no more nearly developed 
than the mathematical, secular, and scientific fac- 
ulties; in fact, the moral faculties are not nearly 
so well developed. Take, for illustration, the moral 
capacity of love. If this one and most excellent 
capacity were as much cultivated and as well de- 
veloped as is the average man's mathematical ca- 
pacity, there would be far, far less crime, and the 
number guilty and convicted of violating moral laws 
would be fewer, much fewer, than they are now, and 
the seats in the churches would be better patronized. 



84 NATURE AND MAN. 

Poor Mental Appetite Alarming. 

How can men and women be disinterested and 
unconcerned about their mental appetites and the 
absence of mental hunger? So vastly important, 
so needful is a keen mental appetite that, when it 
is poor, the person ought to feel as much concerned 
(and alarmed) as though he were exposed to small- 
pox. Neglect to feed the mental faculties starves 
and dwarfs them and results in small and poor men- 
tal capacity. The best remedies and restoratives 
are instructive books. Books of wholesome prin- 
ciples are the appetizers. I recommend books — 
but not books of frivolous and intoxicating imagi- 
nation of imaginary people and things, suited to 
interest only minds as unsound, silly, shallow, and 
frivolous as the perverted minds of their authors; 
but educational and instructive books, books that 
inform and books that convert and elevate the mental 
man. A book is a store of mental foods; and, if 
the thoughts it puts into the minds of its readers 
oppose and pull down any moral principle, it is as 
dangerous as the company of an immoral man or 
woman. Intoxicating drinks intoxicate the brain 
of the material man; but books of extravagant im- 
agination intoxicate the mental man — the mind. 

There are many valuable books from which in- 
formation can be obtained by a few days' reading 
and study, that would be a source of pleasure to 
the reader as long as he lives. One does not have 
to be in a school-room, along with a teacher, to 
get valuable knowledge from books. Sometimes 
when one feels but little or no appetite when he 
sits down at a table, it comes to him when he be- 
gins to eat. Food stimulates his stomach and pro- 
duces physical appetite. It is so, too, of mental 
appetite for reading and study. Try it. Get a 
good school-book of such information as you need, 
or some other instructive reading — not a story-book 



NATURE AND MAN. 85 

of amusing fiction or somebody's imagination, but 
far better is biography, or lives of noted men and 
women, especially those distinguished by their good 
deeds and good works. There is absolutely no need 
of most of the books called fiction, which are, in 
other words, books of the writer's imagination. The 
world, and this twentieth century, is too full of real 
life — of remarkable men and women, and of their 
great works and wonderful deeds — to need much, if 
any, imagination, as in love-story novels, which in- 
toxicate the reader's mind and demoralize. It is 
better to read about people who have, in fact, lived 
and of their works and ways — things they really 
did — and about people who actually live now, and 
of their deeds, ways, and works, rather than about 
imaginary people and things. 

Cultivate appetite for mental enjoyments and 
harmless pleasures, as in reading books. Instruct- 
ive books ought to interest and entertain both the 
young, middle-aged, and old. How can anyone who 
really loves humanity be so stupid, or so selfish, as 
not to care how others have lived, w T hat they did, 
enjoyed, and suffered ? One who does not read books 
loses a large per cent of what ought to be a source 
of daily enjoyment — even one-half the pleasure of life. 



MENTAL LAZINESS AND IGNORANCE. 



Poor mental appetite for reading any such books 
as require close attention and study to comprehend 
indicates mental laziness. A person who will not 
do hard physical work, when he is both able and 
needs to, is lazy physically. There are many thous- 
ands of able-bodied men and women who inordi- 
nately love physical ease and pleasure, but hate 
physical work, because they are physically lazy. 
There are as many, or more, lazy, indolent, and 



86 NATURE AND MAN. 

trifling minds. Many thousands of men and wom- 
en (and some boys and girls) are mentally lazy. 

A normal mind is not lazy. A person whose 
mind is in an industrious condition does not dis- 
like and avoid or shirk hard mental work. A nor- 
mal (natural) mental appetite — a longing desire for 
useful information — inspires an industrious mind to 
work cheerfully and hard for valuable knowledge, 
which can not be acquired without diligent mind 
work. Indisposition to do hard mental work, in 
search for useful, practical information, is a bad 
omen — a sign of an inferior mind; while a dispo- 
sition to read frivolous, uninstructive, and mind- 
intoxicating stories indicates mental corruption and 
perversion. 



MANKIND IS GOOD NATURALLY. 



If a Large Per Cent Are Going to Everlasting 

Perdition, It Is a Crime to Cause the 

Birth of Another Human Being. 

If it were true psychologically, as some good 
people seem to believe, that mankind is naturally 
desperately immoral, defiled, corrupt, and depraved, 
and that only a very small per cent ever are con- 
verted, it would be a sin — a monster crime — against 
humanity to give birth to a child. Illustration: If 
two out of three children born were, in fact, nat- 
urally depraved and not converted during life, the 
parents of the three children would be guilty of a 
far more than monstrous wrong against two of their 
helpless children — the two doomed (by Nature) to 
sin and perdition. Is it right, from a Christian or 
a moral standpoint, that any two human beings 
(or even one), born without their consent, shall suf- 
fer the torments of a sinful life, that one other per- 



NATURE AND MAN. 87 

son only may be converted and become good? Two 
damned! one saved!! 

If any such conditions were right, then it also 
would be equally right that a vast majority of man- 
kind be and stay distressedly poor and helpless, in 
order that a few, very few may be rich, happy, and 
independent. 

Inconsistent and Shamefully Negligent. 

Every man and woman who professes to believe 
that human nature is naturally corrupt, depraved, 
and prone (inclined) to sin, and that a large per 
cent of mankind are lost because of sin, and yet 
do not get up early and hustle, hustle, hustle some 
part of every day to cleanse, purify, and convert 
their children and save them from a corrupt life 
and the torments of a future state of perdition, is 
entirely out of accord and harmony with their pro- 
fessions of faith and love, and grossly, shamefully, 
yea, cruelly and criminally neglectful of a most sa- 
cred and inexcusable duty they owe to their help- 
less children. 

Do people in general really believe that their 
own children are better than their neighbor's? If 
they do so believe, why don't they hustle to convert 
their bad neighbors? Suppose a neighbor's house 
were afire; any good neighbor would run and hus- 
tle to help put the fire out. Is a neighbor's house 
worth more than the character of a neighbor and 
his family? If, in truth, a large per cent of our 
loved ones are allowed to become corrupted and 
perverted, something needs be done. 

Better Depopulate the World. 
If our little, smiling, laughing, helpless, innocent, 
inoffensive, loving, and confiding undeveloped hu- 
manity were born only to be corrupted, perverted, 
and, after a few years, die and be consigned to a 
place (or condition) of endless punishment, it were 



88 NATURE AND MAN. 

better, far better, that all the earth be depopu- 
lated rather than that Hell be populated (perhaps 
crowded) with wailing, weeping spirits and gnash- 
ing, chattering teeth! 

But, as humanity is naturally good, the account- 
ability for his corruption and perversion must be 
charged to the homes and their environments. 

Oh for the truth and consistency! If mankind 
w r ere in fact as bad as it is quite generally sup- 
posed, the work of the Creator in the making of 
the first man would be a miserable failure and an 
awful curse upon humanity. 

Because Normal Human Nature Is Good. 

It is because human nature is naturally moral, 
uncorrupt, clean, pure, and undenled that any men- 
tal uncleanness corrupts and defiles mankind. Be- 
cause infantile human nature is naturally moral and 
in accord with the elements of morality, any ele- 
ment of immorality, being of a nature radically dif- 
ferent, has power to corrupt. The power to cor- 
rupt is vested in the antagonizing differences be- 
tween a child's normal nature and immorality. 

If a child were corrupt and depraved normally, 
immorality would be in agreeable accord and har- 
mony with its nature, and neither make it worse 
nor better. To illustrate: If one who has some 
corrupt butter were to add other corrupt butter to 
his, the butter added would not corrupt the butter 
to which it was added. So, too, if a child's nature 
were corrupt and depraved normally, immorality 
would be in accord and harmony with its nature, 
and make it no worse. Perceive, a physical corrup- 
tion or poison has no damaging, no life-destroying 
effect upon the already dead body of a person. 
Just so, too, mental corruption can have no dam- 
aging, corrupting effect upon a mind already thor- 
oughly corrupt. 



NATURE AND MAN. 89 

Ah! truth — things as they have been, and things 
as they are — is far better than error. All history — 
the records during centuries — of the corrupting, de- 
moralizing effects of immorality on human nature 
is absolute proof that man's normal nature is moral 
and in accord with all moral principles and law, and 
also is absolute proof that immaterial (mental) im- 
purity is a mind-corrupter when entertained favor- 
ably by mind. 

Yes, man is good naturally — not willfully bad; 
but always is wrong when he violates any one of 
the elements of morality. In a large per cent of 
the cases where man is accused of dishonesty, there 
is no intentional, willful dishonesty, the deeds and 
things condemned being much the same as would 
have been the deeds of the accusers under the same 
conditions. Much that is considered as dishonest 
sympathy with badness, as some of the decisions 
of judges and juries, is human goodness manifested 
in moral sympathy for weak, troubled, and penitent 
humanity. 

As everybody is seemingly right as he sees per- 
sonally from his individual viewpoint, every man 
ought to get the habit of frequently putting off 
selfishness and, by placing himself at the mental 
viewpoints of people whose views are different from 
his own, discover by comparison with other people's 
viewpoints whether or not he is really correct and 
right morally. These occasional views from the 
other fellow's viewpoints are important as safe- 
guards against possible mistakes and errors, as many 
people become enslaved to false and deceptive ideas, 
obtained at erroneous viewpoints. Many thousands 
of people are mental slaves, especially on subjects 
in which moral principles are involved — principles 
that must be regarded to avoid errors. Everybody 
is wrong when his ideas and methods cross and con- 
flict with a moral law; and is right when he sees, re- 



90 NATURE AND MAN. 

spects, and reverences moral laws. Thousands are 
enslaved, yoked, and tied to wrong theories and bad 
principles by mental views obtained from wrong 
viewpoints during childhood environments, and seem 
to be unable to free themselves from the yokes of 
mental bondage. It is said of Abraham Lincoln that, 
while he possessed a tenderness of heart and sym- 
pathy with mankind that was clearly manifest in all 
the affairs of his life, he also had the excellent power 
and habit of putting himself in another's place and 
thus seeing things from other people's viewpoints, 
which enabled him to discover errors, reject wrong, 
and hold fast to whatever was right. 

A Brave Struggle Against Poverty. 
Life in many thousands of homes is a constant 
struggle for bread, meat, clothing, fuel, etc. Thous- 
ands are industrious, hard workers, but poor finan- 
ciers. Many others, more gifted or better located, after 
long years of business struggle and success, become 
awfully distressed financially; and all these are en- 
titled to hearty sympathy. Millions are so poor as 
to live in cheap and uncomfortable houses; toilers 
in every sphere of life, struggling for shelter and the 
necessities of life, who possess all the charming men- 
tal elements of humanity and are the peers (the 
equals), in intelligence, purity, mercy, and love, of 
any to whom they meekly bow and pay rents and 
interest. Thus human life, with far the larger per 
cent of humanity, is a desperate struggle, a con- 
stant, strenuous struggle, such as is entirely un- 
known to and uncomprehended by thousands of 
people, who, born rich, know nothing personally of 
the poor man's brave struggle with poverty and toil, 
common to mankind. Wherefore millions of men 
and women are justified in wanting every cent due 
them. Greater unselfishness w T ould be unjust to the 
poor man's family. 



NATURE AND MAN. 91 

And there are people who, under painful circum- 
stances and mental distress, do things that they hate 
to do, as a drowning man will catch at a straw, 
though it belong to another man. And so, too, the 
poor man may not he a thief at heart, even though 
he be caught stealing a scuttle of coal, a loaf of 
bread, or a basket of corn. Poverty, actual need, 
cold, hunger, and financial distress are powerful temp- 
tations to dishonesty and other immorality — temp- 
tations that require very strong moral resistance. 
Such temptations to evil ought sometimes to be very 
generously considered by the public and in court 
by judges and juries. There need be no doubt that 
thousands of persons have been convicted and suf- 
fered long years in prisons for crimes which they 
would never have repeated had they been acquitted 
or pardoned. There are several conditions of mind 
under which one and the first crime does not deter- 
mine or decide one's character. They are not the 
compulsory and forced, but the willful, willingly 
committed and willingly repeated crimes that prove, 
unmistakably, bad character. 

But I desire not to mislead by creating too great 
faith in the goodness of mankind; as too much con- 
fidence may become a pitfall, trap, or snare to young 
persons. The fact is, there are many desperately 
bad, dishonest, and lewd men and women; and, as 
a warning to the female sex, I will tell what is the 
boast and pride of one brute-man whom I heard 
boast that he had personally, individually, degraded 
ninety-nine women. He was a man of affairs, of 
business, and considerable property. He said that 
he regretted that his female victims numbered only 
ninety-nine, instead of one hundred. He was old 
and decrepit. There was reason to believe that his 
victims were many. From a grossly immoral view- 
point — a mental view from which moral right, mor- 
ality, decency, and moral love are excluded — one 



92 NATURE AND MAN. 

sees little or no virtue and goodness in morality, 
and but little or no vice and badness in immorality. 
But the morality — the moral love, virtue, and 
goodness of men and women — far exceeds all their 
willful badness. While it is true that one may hear 
every day of willful dishonesty, deception, false pre- 
tense, broken promises, betrayals, thefts, robbery, 
and murder, yet all these things are the evil works 
of a very small per cent of the vast total number 
of men and women. If one will look for and con- 
trast the good, generous, and noble deeds of love, 
benevolence, and self-sacrifice, even to the sacrifice 
of life, a sacrifice which many thousands of men 
and women have made in voluntary efforts to save 
the lives of friends, he will find that the goodness 
of mankind far exceeds the badness. The vast ma- 
jority of men and women are honest, conscientious 
toilers, busily engaged in the pursuits of proper and 
necessary labor. By a correct analysis of human 
nature one will find that there are, in fact, millions 
of people fully up to human idea of goodness; mil- 
lions who are ideals of moral love, purity, and hon- 
or; millions, especially of girls and young women, 
who never have entertained and fed their mind on 
immoral and corrupting thoughts; and millions of 
children as pure and spotless as the angels in Heav- 
en. The Lord Himself has said of these precious 
little ones : ' ' Suffer the little children to come unto 
Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the king- 
dom of God." (Mark 10:14.) He meant that the 
young child is pure and faultless, until corrupted. 

An Embodiment of Goodness. 
It is said that ' ' a spirit hath not flesh and blood. ' ' 
So, too, of the mental or spiritual man; he is not 
of flesh and blood, but immaterial. Powerful fac- 
ulties of reason, admiration, sympathy, kindness, 
love, devotion, sincerity, truth, honor, benevolence, 



NATURE AND MAN. 93 

will (volition), moral purity, and self-respect are 
some of the beautiful constituent elements of the 
mental man; and, as the work and fruit of each of 
these is an element of moral goodness, men, women, 
and children, in their normal, unperverted state, are 
each an embodiment of goodness. Behold the self- 
sacrificing magnanimity and the charming, fascinat- 
ing moral beauty of the normal, undefiled, mental, 
spiritual man and woman. In their normal beauty 
they jar exceed the beauty of the rose and the lily. 
Only perverts— such men and women as refuse to 
recognize and love the laws of Nature, which are 
the elements of morality — are bad. Oh, how inspir- 
ing and encouraging to noble life is unperverted, 
uncorrupted humanity! Oh, how beautiful is the 
beauty of a pure mind! Let us contemplate, med- 
itate, and thus feed our minds on the fascinating, 
inspiring, and elevating beauty of genuine human- 
ity — mental purity and love as uncarnal and loyal 
as that of an ideal sister for her own brother. 

Far more uplifting, elevating, inspiring, and stim- 
ulating to good, brave, manly, and womanly deeds 
is the truth than the false, depressing, and demor- 
alizing theory that man is a corrupt and totally de- 
praved devil. Take your hat off to the poorest, 
humblest, and seemingly least consequential of gen- 
uine, unperverted mankind. It is unfortunate, very 
unfortunate for humanity that the time has come 
when many thousands of men and women are look- 
ing at the too large per cent of abnormal, perverted 
humanity and seem to be losing sight of our gen- 
uine and excellent human nature. If, while seeing 
only the deeds of criminals, one loses sight of the 
millions of good and pure-hearted people, he loses 
the powerfully refining and uplifting influences of 
genuine human nature. By loss of faith in the mor- 
al love and unselfish goodness of genuine humanity, 
vast multitudes are being deceived, weakened, cor- 



94 NATURE AND MAN. 

rupted, demoralized, perverted, turned against right, 
and are ruined. Under the laws governing normal 
human nature, the higher estimate one puts on hu- 
manity, the more respectful will he be. The more 
he loves humanity, the more truthful and honest 
he will be in dealing with his neighbor. The higher 
one's opinion of mankind, the greater his inclina- 
tion to generous deeds and nobler life. No greater 
robbery and deprivation can be inflicted on any 
person than the robbery and loss of one's respect 
for and love of genuine humanity. Oh, horrible, 
horrible, even the thought of such loss! It is a 
two-fold or double robbery; as it robs and deprives 
the person deceived of the natural outlet and flow 
of his fountain of natural love for humanity, and 
at the same time robs and deprives other persons 
of the interrupted and checked love to which they 
are justly entitled. 

Because humanity is the most lovable of all 
things that we see on earth, an unoccupied house, 
to my mind, though it were a fine mansion, ele- 
gantly furnished, but without human occupants, 
would be a dreary jail — a heartless, loveless prison, 
a place of depressing desolation. I far rather would 
be in a cheap shanty with lovable humanity than 
in a palace of gold, elegantly furnished, and no de- 
scendant of Adam and Eve. To look at walls of 
glittering gold and furniture of pearl decorated with 
diamonds would mock and aggravate my affections 
and torment my love of humanity. Go, if one will 
go, into a country where there is no humanity, and, 
should he after a few months discover an old wheel- 
barrow, I suppose that he would greet it with some 
measure of joy and feel a sort of reverence toward 
it, because of the sacredness of human hands sup- 
posed to have toiled with it. 

But there are some perverts. Each of the con- 
stituent elements of the mental man's marvelous 



NATURE AND MAN. 95 

organism is a faculty — an operative power for good 
when normal and for evil when perverted. And 
each faculty of his organism is liable to be re- 
versed — perverted — and the person becomes bad. 
We know that there are many thousands of des- 
perately bad men and women; but many thousands 
are but a small per cent of many millions. When, 
by the bad influences of an immoral associate or 
by corrupt environments, one's normal elements 
(mental faculties) are perverted, the person becomes 
a rebel against the laws of his own normal nature, 
and a traitor to the decreed and excellent govern- 
ment of Nature. The good offices and normal work- 
ing of his faculties being reversed, he becomes as 
dangerous to confiding, unsuspecting humanity as 
a fierce and hungry wolf among lambs. Yes, there 
is a mental process called perversion, by which any 
one or all of the elements of his charming normal 
nature may be perverted. 



MENTAL CORRUPTION. 



What It Is, Etc. 



Pride and Pleasure. 

Certain it is that no person can be right, per- 
sonally, who does not know what are the elements 
of immorality. And it is equally certain that no 
person is at all qualified to have the care and moral 
instructing of a child who does not single out and 
teach what sort of thoughts and principles are mind- 
corrupters. 

Many people there are who are quick to know 
and recognize any sort of physical corruption, any 
unclean material or matter visible to their eyes, but 
inexcusably expose their minds to dirty, nasty, hate- 
ful mental un cleanness, which is mental corruption. 



96 NATURE AND MAN. 

Yea, many, many thousands of people carefully 
avoid and shun any visible corruption, while they 
recklessly expose themselves to invisible (mental) 
corruption and are polluted and go down, on and 
on down, to the lowest regions of depravity. Dur- 
ing my recent eight years' travel and investigations 
and analyses of mental and physical conditions, I 
saw many thousands of people who were careful to 
keep their clothing, and many of them their bodies, 
from such dirt and uncleanness as can be washed 
off with soap and water, while they seem entirely 
unconcerned and undisturbed by the mental un- 
cleanness, corruption, and filth of their polluted 
minds — filth that can not be washed off with any 
amount of water and soap. 

Mental corruption and filth is as common, as 
prevalent as physical corruption. When one goes 
from place to place, from town to town, he may 
see, if he will, many places of physical uncleanness 
and corruption. The fact is, he will have passed 
no fewer places of disgusting mental corruption. 
Ah! mental uncleanness, corruption, and filth, as 
real as any that is of festering visible matter, is 
as common and far, far more harmful than any 
material corruption and filth that can be found in 
the nasty sewerage of any town or city. 

It is because of limited and unpsychological cul- 
tivation of the moral faculties of minds during child- 
hood and youth that many victims of such neglect 
are unable to 1 take a correct viewpoint and get a 
right mental view of mind-corruption, and conse- 
quently have but vague conceptions of its obnox- 
ious, harmful nature. Wherefore there are millions 
of people who, if asked to tell what constitutes (or 
is) a mental corruption, and how one may know 
and shun or avoid it, could not give an intelligent 
and instructive answer. 



NATURE AND MAN. 97 

As mind and matter are distinct and do not mix 
and mingle, we must look elsewhere than in matter 
for mental corruption. Dislike of morality or of 
any moral principle is mental corruption. Any 
thought or sentiment whatever that opposes or is 
opposed to any moral principle or element of mor- 
ality is a mental corruption, and will corrupt any 
mind that entertains it. Any immoral principle is 
a mind-corrupter. Any thought unfriendly to a 
moral principle or law is mental corruption. Any 
mental feeling and sentiment out of accord and 
harmony with Nature's laws of morality is mental 
corruption. Envy, covetousness, selfishness, mal- 
ice, lust, and infidelity — each is a mental corrup- 
tion. Pride is an extremely obnoxious, hateful, de- 
testable mental corruption — corrupting one's affec- 
tions and creating greater love of dress and personal 
self-display than its victim's love of humanity. The 
Bible tells us that God hates a proud spirit. (See 
Proverbs.) It is said that the love of money is 
the root of all evil. But the time has come when 
the excessive love of pleasure is more nearly the 
root of evil. Immoral love is a mental corruption; 
and so immoderate love of pleasure is a most dam- 
aging mental corruption. Immoderate love of pleas- 
ure leads the people of this twentieth century into 
all sorts of immorality. Men rob and murder not so 
much for the money as for the pleasure they expect 
to get in the things that money will buy. Where- 
fore pride and love of pleasure are two extremely 
harmful mind-corruptions. Mental corruptions in- 
cite and cause all manner of immorality. 

Love of pleasure — as of society, entertainments, 
games, amusements, and personal gratification — is 
corrupt and excessive when it makes a person will- 
ing to spend money for such thngs that is needed 
to pay for property, clothing, groceries, etc. It is 
one of the most degrading mental corruptions and 



98 NATURE AND MAN. 

has corrupted the minds and induced millions of 
men and women to sacrifice honor, character, vir- 
tue, and to betray their purest and truest friends 
and sinfully violate their most sacred pledges — all 
these things to take up wth corrupt, carnal-minded 
but social villains, to gratify their excessive love of 
pleasure. The male members of the big and ever- 
increasing class of seekers after pleasure are very 
sociable, friendly, talkative, human vultures, who 
soon tire of their superficial, silly, shallow, and fool- 
ish female victims and then easily desert them, which 
they are sure soon to do. 



PERVERSION AND PERVERTS. 



A Change of Mind from Good to Bad . 
Caused by Mental Corruption. 

We often hear the word conversion used during 
a revival meeting, but do not often hear the words 
pervert and perversion. Pervert means to turn from 
good to bad, from right to wrong; wherefore a per- 
son must be perverted, if he is good, before he can 
be converted. As a noun, pervert is used as the 
name of a perverted person — one who is bad. A 
pervert is a person whose esteem and valuation of 
morality are far too low. Perversion is a change 
of one's opinion of moral principles — a lowering and 
decreasing of one's esteem and valuation of moral- 
ity, an abnormal, corrupted mental condition of the 
moral faculties or powers of reason — and concerns 
and affects directly the moral faculties of one's mind. 

The moral faculties, when normal, uncorrupted, 
are regulated and guided by love of the principles 
of morality, and are the only safeguards against 
mental corruption. They disapprove, reject, and 
refuse to entertain any impure, corrupting thought, 



NATURE AND MAN. 99 

and thus filter and purify one's mind and protect 
it from perversion. 

Perversion, then, is the corrupted condition of 
one's mind when a too low valuation is put upon 
the elements of morality. The normal (ideal) man 
puts a vastly higher valuation on honesty and vir- 
tue than on anything that he can gain by dishon- 
esty, immorality, and vice. But the pervert puts a 
higher valuation on things that he can gain by dis- 
honesty and vice than on honesty and virtue. His 
affections are perverted. He thinks that he is right 
when he is wrong; but he is no less dangerous and 
damaging to humanity because of his thinking that 
he is right. 

This change from normal reason and affections 
is a gradual change, which, having been accom- 
plished, the victim needs to be converted, which 
means right about-face, to turn and go right. It 
is remarkably easy to pervert children and inex- 
perienced, innocent, confiding, and unsuspecting hu- 
manity; but very much more difficult to convert. 
When a normal faculty becomes perverted, as when 
the faculty of honesty is perverted, it renounces 
and becomes antagonistic to Nature's law of hon- 
esty, and will cheat. Both perversion and conver- 
sion are accomplished by gradual change of mind 
and sentiment — perversion by immoral mental food 
and conversion by moral mental food. 

One or more of a man's mental faculties may 
be perverted and his other mental faculties remain 
normal. Wherefore it is common to see people whose 
secular faculties have been abundantly fed and de- 
veloped during several years in school, while their 
moral faculties were being neglected, poorly fed, al- 
most starved, and consequently dwarfed and weak 
morally, if not entirely perverted. Perceive, per- 
version is the corrupting of one's moral faculties. 
We are not to consider the. mental man an imag- 



ioo NATURE AND MAN. 

inary, but a real being — as real as though he were 
made of iron, brass, and steel. The spiritual ele- 
ments of which he is composed are mental faculties, 
in which are all his various forces— all his wonder- 
ful capacities, — and it is one or another of these 
astonishing faculties that, when stimulated by men- 
tal food, incite him to mental action — to think and 
do things. When any one of his moral faculties is 
deceived, corrupted, and perverted, it becomes ab- 
normal and the opposite in sentiment to what it 
was when normal. His composition has not changed, 
but has been perverted. 

Mental Faculties Not Weakened. 
The moral faculties of one's mind are neither 
annihilated nor weakened by mental corruption and 
perversion; but, by seeing things from a wrong and 
deceptive mental viewpoint, one's reason is deceived 
and his moral affections, love, and will so changed 
that the victim of perversion — of mental corrup- 
tion — loses respect, regard, and love for the prin- 
ciples of morality, and all faith, if ever he had any, 
in Christianity. The normal man (he is the gen- 
uine) loves morality and hates immorality and is 
careful not to violate any moral principle or law. 
The abnormal man (he is the pervert and counter- 
feit) does not love morality and neither respects 
nor regards moral principles or laws as such. The 
normal man, in the moral light of his correct view- 
point, always sees moral principles and laws that 
he loves and desires not to violate, because he knows 
that such laws shield humanity from vice and uplift 
mankind. But the abnormal man, in the mental 
clouds and darkness of his erroneous viewpoint, 
never sees the good works of moral principles; and, 
as there is no affinity between morality and im- 
morality, no affinity between goodness and badness, 
no affinity between virtue and vice, he is never 



NATURE AND MAN. 101 

willing to allow such principles and laws as are 
purely moral to interfere with his ways of getting 
money and pleasure. 

Perverts Love One Another. 
Perverts love one another and are generous. But 
their love is not purified by morality, and their gen- 
erosity is not governed by any love of moral prin- 
ciples. Wherefore the love which governs the per- 
vert, when a question of morality is involved, is as 
different, in its quality and character, from the love 
that governs the normal man as are virtue and vice. 
Perceive, love itself, to be pure, must proceed from 
mental faculties regulated by love of the moral prin- 
ciples and laws of Nature, of man's normal, un- 
perverted nature. (See "Laws of Nature.") Such 
love is ideal and makes good citizens, good neigh- 
bors, good wives, good husbands, good fathers, good 
mothers, good sons, good daughters, good teachers, 
good business men, and good statesmen. 

Many Perverts Rich, Yet Awfully Poor. 

Perverts engage in all sorts of business, in all 
the professions, trades, arts, and sciences, and many 
are successful as regards money - making. Many 
men of great wealth and many of the millionaires 
are perverts — counterfeits and frauds on genuine, 
ideal humanity. Their business faculties being cul- 
tivated, many have accumulated property, ranging 
in value from thousands on up to millions. Rich 
in all such things as can be bought with money; 
but destitute of things far more valuable and that 
can not be bought with money. Oh, how poor, how 
poverty-poor and destitute of that finest gem, that 
mental, spiritual jewel — pure love! Yea, how poor 
and destitute of that fascinating, charming, lovable, 
adorable, priceless product of one's moral faculties — 
pure, uncarnal love! Yea, destitute of love purified 
and governed, by love of moral principles! Rich, 



102 NATURE AND MAN. 

yet poorer than many who have neither money nor 
property. 

Mental Foundation Must Be Right. 

Love, either moral or immoral, governs every- 
body — both the vile and the good, the moral and 
the immoral. If it be strong moral love, its gov- 
ernment over the individual will be strong morally; 
but if it be weak moral love, its government will 
be weak morally, and the individual easily perverted. 
Strong love, powerful self-government; weak love, 
little or no self-government. 

Love, whether moral or immoral, is mental and 
spiritual — not of material or matter. Things men- 
tal or spiritual have their basis or foundation as 
really as do things of matter or material. But the 
basis or foundation of matter is of matter, and the 
basis or foundation of things spiritual or mental is 
of mind. A person's valuation of any moral prin- 
ciple, rule, or law is based upon his opinion or be- 
lief, which is the basis or foundation of his love or 
hatred of the principle under consideration. And, 
too, one's opinion or belief has its basis or founda- 
tion, which, to be right, must be based on truth. 
If a question of moral right is involved, his opin- 
ion must not violate any moral principle. 

Mental Cultivation. 

Perverted moral faculties are as vigorous and 
active in the production of immoral admiration, im- 
moral sentiments, and immoral love as they were, 
before perversion, in the production of moral ad- 
miration, moral sentiments, and moral love. 

Cultivated moral faculties produce inspiring 
moral love and good character, and prevent per- 
version. Uncultivated moral faculties produce im- 
moral love, bad character, and perversion. The va- 
rious moral faculties of a child's mind are as de- 
pendent on moral cultivation for moral development 



NATURE AND MAN. 103 

and moral strength and pure love as the potato, 
corn, onion, or any other vegetable is dependent on 
physical culture for its growth and the development 
of its fruits. Perversion is the curse — the awful in- 
fliction — visited upon humanity as a consequence of 
parental neglect to cultivate and develop the moral 
faculties of their children. Children are taught the 
alphabet of a language, but not the alphabet of mor- 
ality. In all cases where diligent, persevering culti- 
vation of a child's moral faculties (powers) is neglect- 
ed, moral love (good character) is losing strength and 
immoral love (bad character) is gaining strength. 

The Difference in People. 
The amount of difference in the moral and the 
immoral characters of people is exactly equal to 
the difference in the amount of their love of mor- 
ality and their hatred of immorality; and the dif- 
ference in the amount of love of morality and ha- 
tred of immorality is just equal to the difference 
in parental efforts to lead and induce their children 
to love the principles of morality and to hate the 
elements of immorality. It is no doubt true that 
all perverts are not equally bad. Some are out- 
laws, while others are engaged in respectable occu- 
pations and too busy in their lawful occupations, 
too judicious and too wise, from a business view- 
point, to be openly disloyal to the laws of the 
country. 

Counterfeit and Fraudulent. 
I should be better pleased if I could say that 
there are degrees of moral blindness, but find it dif- 
ficult so to say, and be truthful, when thinking of 
people who, as a class, do not love the elements of 
morality nor hate the elements of immorality. The 
truth is, any person so blinded by mental corrup- 
tion that he can not see the vast, incalculable su- 
periority of people who love the moral laws is a 



104 NATURE AND MAN. 

degenerate, counterfeit, and fraud. There are coun- 
terfeits of many things of great merit; but things 
without merit are not supposed to be worth coun- 
terfeiting. Because mankind, unperverted, in his 
natural state, is ideal, there are millions of coun- 
terfeit and fraudulent men and women trying to 
make people believe that they are as good as other 
people. Immoral and corrupt men and women are 
base, vile, and dangerous counterfeits on humanity. 
They pose as decent people, even pass as moral 
people, and as Christian people! But usually their 
counterfeit nature is soon detected by such people 
as really love virtue and hate vice, there being no 
affinity between the good and the bad. 

Perversion Becomes Chronic. 
Under the laws of psychology, mental blindness, 
caused by perversion, soon becomes chronic, and 
so complete that every glimmer of moral light is 
shut out and excluded from the moral faculties of 
the pervert's mind. Chronic blindness to the moral 
beauty and excellences of the elements of morality 
puts the pervert down, way, way down into the 
ruts of mental darkness so deep as to exclude all 
enlightened views of the offensive, obnoxious, and 
hateful influences and works of the elements of im- 
morality. Way, way down in deep ruts of mental 
darkness are millions — many millions — of men and 
women helplessly blind to moral light and reason, 
where, if we may judge by the records and history 
of mankind during the past centuries, a vastly large 
per cent will stay perverted for their lifetime. 

Perverts Become Unconvertable. 
It has been estimated that not more than three 
perverts out of one hundred are converted after 
they pass the age of thirty-five years. Surely such 
statistics ought to be accepted as a valuable and 
timely warning to perverts yet under thirty-five 



NATURE AND MAN. 105 

years of age. It certainly is grossly unwise for any 
person to be and continue in rebellion against his 
or her own normal nature on and on to the age 
of thirty-five ! 

Under the stubborn, unyielding laws of psychol- 
ogy, every persistent violator of any moral law is 
disloyal to himself. His moral faculties being per- 
verted, he is in rebellion against his true nature; 
and every repeated violation of a moral law is an- 
other trespass upon one's genuine nature; and the 
degrading penalty, following each violation, puts 
the violator lower, and still lower, morally, until 
all his moral faculties are thoroughly corrupt and 
perverted. In this demoralized condition, his cor- 
rupt, depraved, abnormal nature becomes a new 
law unto himself; and the civil and criminal laws 
of men become his only restraint from evil. 

Bad, but Not Willfully So. 

Highly valuing and loving humanity, as every- 
body ought, and knowing that the works of per- 
verts are not all equally bad, I feel anxious to say 
any good things of such people that can be said in 
accord with truth. I much rather would offer ex- 
cuses for the mental blindness of some such people, 
who, though positively immoral, love people of like 
character and sentiments. 

Many perverts are not willfully bad. By this 
I mean that, although their influence is bad, they 
do not desire to damage nor seek with malice to 
injure humanity. Though they do not love their 
radically moral neighbors, yet they do not study and 
plan willfully to bring trouble, sorrow, and grief 
upon the people whose moral sentiments they really 
hate. But, being governed by corrupted moral fac- 
ulties, they are, in fact, the opponents of moral prog- 
ress, principles, and law; and, by their influence and 
votes, they make it much easier for a desperately im- 



106 NATURE AND MAN. 

moral class to corrupt, debauch, and rob millions 
of people of moral character, property, and support, 
and, in short, make or aid in making vast numbers of 
people (many of them women and children) most 
miserable. 

Be warned, parents; a large per cent of perverts, 
now blind to the excellent and helpful character 
and incalculable value of moral principles, were at 
birth as good as were many others who now are 
distinguished for their moral worth. Many of the 
now low, corrupt, demoralized, polluted, and de- 
bauched fallen (perverted) men and women were, 
at the time of their birth, of pure and angelic na- 
tures. Their moral faculties and moral affections 
were not cultivated. 

Not a Disease. 

Perversion is not a disease, nor a condition o 
disease, but of deception, mental corruption, and 
misguidance. A perverted faculty has lost none of 
its energy and force by perversion; but it has lost 
its normal love for the moral principle for which 
it did stand, and now loves and advocates a false 
and damaging method and way, in opposition to 
a genuine principle. Notice, corrupt the elements 
of the material man, and the consequence is dis- 
ease and loss of physical strength and force. Cor- 
rupt the elements of the mental man, and the con- 
sequence is perversion, without loss of strength and 
force. This indicates the two-fold nature of man — 
the spiritual and the material. 

Perversion does not stop with one only of the 
moral faculties; as co-operation is the general, if 
not universal, rule of Nature. Everything I now 
think of is co-operating with some other thing or 
things. It is so, too, of the faculties of the men- 
tal man. All his moral faculties co-operate to ren- 
der him stronger morally; and when a fundamental 



NATURE AND MAN. 107 

(foundation) moral faculty yields to temptation and 
perverts, other faculties of his moral organism are 
weakened morally and, unless the perverted faculty 
be soon converted, will follow; and the person, hav- 
ing lost love for moral principles, will become a 
pervert. Watch the man who advocates any par- 
ticular vice, and you will discover that he favors 
the licensing of other hateful and damaging vices. 
During a long and active business life, dealing with 
many thousands of people, of many nationalities, 
I have not failed to learn that one who will lie to 
gain a point is a pervert, and will steal and betray 
confidence, if not restrained by fear of the laws of 
men. A house divided against itself does not stand 
long. The same rule is true of the mental man. 
He can not be half good and the other half bad long. 
Wherefore perversion makes him pretty nearly all 
bad, and conversion makes him pretty nearly all good. 

No Affinity between Goodness and Badness. 
As there can be no affinity between goodness 
and badness, no affinity between morality and im- 
morality, no affinity between virtue and vice, every- 
one who thinks that, after all, he is fairly good, 
when he knows that he is dishonest, is seriously 
mistaken. Dishonesty and genuine goodness do not 
keep company long. The normal man is not dis- 
honest. As the unperverted, normal elements or 
composition of the mental man are faculties (men- 
tal powers) in accord with moral principles, it fol- 
lows that, when perverted, his faculties are reversed 
and out of accord with and opposed to moral prin- 
ciples. Wherefore the normal faculties, perverted, 
are the elements of a pervert. The following are 
a few of his hateful elements and indicate the ob- 
noxious hatefulness of his abnormal nature. They 
are: perverted moral reason and affections, per- 
verted love, dishonesty, selfishness, pretension, de- 



108 NATURE AND MAN. 

ception, untruthfulness, mental impurity, impru- 
dence, insobriety, unkindness, ingratitude, immod- 
esty, infidelity, and all sorts of vile, hypocritical 
cunning and lasciviousness. There is strong affin- 
ity between people of a sort. Affinity is close agree- 
ment, admiration, and liking. Wherefore the per- 
vert loves people of his own kind and nature. He 
does not love, but hates a truly good and pure man. 
While the normal man loves every moral principle, 
the abnormal man hates every moral principle and 
dislikes everyone who advocates moral laws. Per- 
ceive, the pervert is, in fact, the opponent of virtue 
and the friend of vice. He loves an immoral man 
as an associate. 

MENTAL CONVERSION. 



What It Is from a Psychological 
Viewpoint. 

We are told that conversion is a mental change 
from badness to goodness, But this sort of defini- 
tion ought to be very unsatisfactory, as it is as in- 
definite and as insufficient as that of saying to a 
child, as many parents do, "Be good," without 
teaching what goodness is. We also are told that 
conversion is a "change of heart," and this defini- 
tion is as vague and uninstructive as the other. 

Conversion is the desirable result, when a per- 
vert is induced to take a right mental viewpoint, 
where he can get a correct mental view of morality 
and of the excellent, refining, and uplifting influ- 
ences of each and all its elements. He then sees 
that he has been wrong in his dislike and opposi- 
tion to the elements of morality, and, now putting 
a correct and high moral valuation upon each, he 
renounces and rejects the mental corruption, which 
has deceived and misled him. Mental corruption 



NATURE AND MAN. 109 

gone, his past-time dislike and opposition to the ele- 
ments of morality are changed to love and support. 
After perversion becomes chronic, which it soon 
does, it is very hard to remove from the mind of 
the pervert the mental corruption which is the cause- 
True, genuine conversion is the mind's overcom- 
ing of evil; the cleansing and purifying triumph of 
one's moral faculties over the blinding and pervert, 
ing influences and powers of mental corruption; the 
filtering, cleansing, and purifying of one's mind. 
which, of course, includes the affections; the reject- 
ing, renouncing, and ousting of mental corruption. 
Perceive, as dislike, enmity, or hatred of any one 
of. the elements of morality is mental corruption, 
love of the same elements is the natural remedy for 
perversion and the means to cause conversion. In 
fact, sincere love of all the elements of morality is 
the only thing that will produce thorough, practical 
conversion. Because of the cleansing, mind-purify- 
ing influences of sincere love of the elements of mor- 
ality, it is absolutely necessary (to mental purity) 
that every child be taught the alphabet of morality, 
the moral laws. 

HOMES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS. 



The Sources of Mental Goodness and Badness. 

High Appreciation of the Elements of 

Morality the Foundation of Pure 

Love and Righteousness. 



Instructive Mental Views of Home Environments, 
Their Influences, and the Consequences. 

The home, as it ought to be, represents the 
Christian's idea of Heaven. Heaven is supposed 
to be a place of absolute mental purity, a place from 
which all the elements of immorality are excluded. 



no NATURE AND MAN. 

The home is the nursery of mankind, from which 
every sort of mental impurity and corruption ought 
to be excluded, as nearly as possible, to protect all 
its members, whether they be young or older, from 
mental corruption. If there are any places on earth 
that ought to be regarded as more sacred than all 
others and kept purer, they are the homes. And 
we may not doubt that, if there is in Hades, the 
Biblical hot place, any one side or corner where it 
is more uncomfortable than in another, the spirits 
of men and women who had corrupted homes on 
earth will be the occupants. 

The home is the birthplace of humanity, where 
children are born and either are carefully brought 
up or are perverted and grow up as little: cultivated, 
morally, as weeds among thorns^andYthistles. In 
the homes where parents put a higher valuation on 
mind than on matter, children^are intelligentlv and 
skillfully brought up; the moral qualities of their 
marvelous mental capacities are diligently cultivated 
and developed along with their physical bodies. Af- 
ter a few years, these children have been brought 
up properly, and can be singled out and known by 
their good citizenship — their good words, influences, 
and works, resulting from their inspiring love of the 
elements of morality and their stimulating hatred of 
the elements of immorality. These children were 
not cheated, as millions are, out of their birthright 
to good parentage and moral education. Their 
homes and the home environments were refining, 
uplifting, ideal. 

All honor to their parents, and especially ever- 
lasting credit and honor to the loyal and faithful 
mothers, whose instructive examples, words, and 
works contributed so largely to the excellent char- 
acters of such men and women! Yea, everlasting, 
never-ceasing honor and glory to all such loyal wives 
and faithful mothers! Such are the sort of parents 



NATURE AND MAN. m 

to whom the Bible refers when it commands, " Honor 
thy father and thy mother," and not such parents 
as defraud their children out of the most sacred right 
— the right to a through, systematic moral education, 
which must be given at the home and by the parents 
or a competent teacher of the elements of morality 
and of evils of immorality. 

Now, after eight years of travel and investiga- 
tions conducted in a large per cent of the States, 
including more than two thousand boarding-houses, 
hotels, and rooming-houses, and in more than one 
hundred thousand private homes, I am convinced 
that the average home, together with its environ- 
ments, instead of being a place of moral love puri- 
fied and governed by an underlying foundation-love 
of righteousness, based upon the elements of mor- 
ality, is, in fact, the common source of mental im- 
purity and mental corruption. 

Analyze the waters of the Mississippi River at 
Saint Louis, Vicksburg, and New Orleans, and find 
physical corruption. Then trace the tributaries to 
the big river, and it will be found that they (the 
tributaries) are the sources of much of the impurity 
and corruption of its waters. Then go to the sa- 
loons and to the places of vile prostitution and on 
to the jails and the penitentiaries and analyze the 
corrupt minds and bad mental character of the peo- 
ple of these places. Then trace the tributaries to 
all such places, to find the sources of their mental 
corruption. The homes are the tributaries that sup- 
ply the corrupt and demoralized people of the sa- 
loon, the house of debauchery, the jail, and the pen- 
itentiary. And the homes, together with their en- 
vironments, are the first and the greater sources of 
the mental corruption and immoral love which gov- 
ern the pervert, wherever he be found. Perceive, 
not only the patrons of all immoral places, but also 
their proprietors and employees, are products of 



ii2 NATURE AND MAN. 

private homes] and, as rapidly as the old topers die 
off, boys and young men take their places as tip- 
plers, as advocates of evil, and as voters. The sa- 
loons, places of prostitution, jails, and penitentiaries 
are but little patronized by men and women brought 
up in homes where the alphabet of morality is as 
well and intelligently taught as is the alphabet of 
the language of the home. 

Environments and Mental Heredity. 
After mental heredity, the next powerful force in 
fixing the mental character of boys and girls for life 
is childhood environments. The word environments 
usually has reference to and means the home and 
its associations and influences, whether they be good 
or bad. Father, mother, brothers and sisters, vis- 
itors, boarders, hired girls and hired men, books, 
newspapers, wealth and poverty — each of these is 
a source of influence; and the influences of all these 
are the elements of the environments of a home, 
and are moral or immoral according to the character 
of the source. Usually the moral or immoral char- 
acter of parents and the heredity of the child and 
its environment will be very much alike, because 
the character of the parents and of their home us- 
ually correspond morally; and it is not the phys- 
ical, but the mental character of the home that has 
most to do in establishing the character of chil- 
dren for life. Fine houses and elegant furnishings 
neither make people good nor bad. As every nat- 
ural, unperverted man and woman is in willful, 
hearty accord and harmony with all the moral laws 
of Nature, they are mentally all goodness, justice, 
mercy, and moral love; and every unnatural, per- 
verted man and woman is out of accord and out 
of harmony with the moral laws of Nature; and, 
as under the mental laws governing reproduction 
or creation everything mental — every mental ele- 



NATURE AND MAN. 113 

ment — produces its kind and quality, therefore in- 
fants of the former class of parents are predisposed 
to goodness, and infants of the latter class are pre- 
disposed to badness. 

Children of these widely different parents con- 
stitute, at birth, two distinct classes of infantile hu- 
manity, as vastly different in their moral and im- 
moral tendencies as the differences that character- 
ize their parents. Now, as to the efforts of these 
two classes of children for the attainment to pure 
and noble lives — for ideal manhood and woman- 
hood — the chances for their success, under un- 
changed parental influences, are very unequal at birth 
on account of heredity, and especially unequal in 
view of the fact that high birth (good parentage) 
justifies presupposing good, pure, and elevating home 
environments — clean, moral, and uplifting influences 
during childhood and youth; while low birth (bad 
parentage) justly presupposes bad, impure, and im- 
moral environments and degrading influences during 
childhood and youth. So there is usually no equal- 
ity of opportunity for future good character of a 
child of bad parentage. And every parent is bad 
whose business, secular, and social faculties are not 
under control of moral faculties — faculties of moral 
sympathy and moral love. The environments of a 
child's home usually correspond with its inherited 
mental tendencies and the character of its parents; 
wherefore a child of bad parentage is almost sure 
to be kept down as much or more by evil environ- 
ments than by heredity. How could the chances 
for ideal manhood and womanhood be more un- 
equal, when we add to the degrading inherited ten- 
dencies the powerful evil and demoralizing influ- 
ences of bad home environments during childhood? 
Ah, pity the child of bad parentage! 

But the greater curse is upon the parent or par- 
ents. The inexcusable immorality and the awful 



1 1 4 NATURE AND MAN. 

two-fold accountability: first, for being personally 
immoral; and second, for transmitting a like ab- 
normal and corrupt condition to the minds of their 
children! Oh, the cruelty, parental cruelty, in the 
mental impurity, corruption, and debauchery of their 
unborn ! 

As the material man is purely animal in his na- 
ture, we may expect the inherited physical tenden- 
cies of children of either class of parents to develop 
all their inherited physical oddities along with their 
physical or bodily growth, unchanged by environ- 
ments. But, as the mental man is a thinking, reas- 
oning intelligence, there is a possibility that his in- 
herited tendencies, whether they be moral or im- 
moral, may be changed, or even stopped and re- 
versed, by the powerful, almost irresistible influ- 
ences- of early childhood environments. Very great 
is the influence of mental heredity, but not so great 
as distinctive childhood environments, whether they 
be moral or immoral, that surround a child during 
its early childhood — during its first ten or a dozen 
years. 

The Child Believes Whatever Is Taught. 
The very best inherited tendencies may be en- 
tirely perverted by immoral influences during child- 
hood; and the worst inherited tendencies may be 
converted by pure and uplifting environments. In- 
fants taken from the very best Christian parents 
and brought up under the degrading, demoralizing 
influences of evil environments will make as cor- 
rupt men and women as though they had been of 
the worst parentage, so complete is the work of 
perversion. 

So irresistible and so powerful are the influences 
of home and evil associations as to mold and es- 
tablish in the minds of children belief and faith in 
false theories and damaging doctrines, and in false 



NATURE AND MAN, 115 

principles, ways, and means, which, though entirely 
out of accord and out of harmony with truth, are 
stubbornly but conscientiously retained through life 
by a large per cent of the blinded victims of false 
teachers. Neither are these victims of false theo- 
ries, doctrines, and immoral principles weaklings, 
nor below mediocrity; but strong minds are so 
thoroughly perverted during childhood, upon any 
one or more subjects, as to be blind to a true doc- 
trine, theory, or moral principle; and, in the ma- 
jority of cases, for life. Their parents, or others 
who taught them, are deep down in mental ruts, 
from which they seem utterly unable to see their 
errors; and, through like blindness, their children, 
in turn, are put down into mental ruts so deep and 
dark that they too are below the light of learning 
and truth, and stupidly and stubbornly believe what 
they were taught during childhood. 

The most dangerous falsehoods that can be taught 
are those involving and violating a moral principle; 
as, when a child is induced to believe in a false 
principle or rule of conduct, such as violate a moral 
law of Nature — for instance, to believe in licensing, 
for a sum of money, any business or conduct that 
degrades and damages any class of humanity. Men 
have no right to license wrong. Parental belief, ex- 
pressed in conversation or in occasional words fa- 
voring the license of any immoral conduct or busi- 
ness, is mental food, which, when heard and enter- 
tained by children, is soon digested and molded into 
belief and sentiment, and becomes an influential 
element of their character. • (See "Character.") 

This mental law of Nature ought to be nailed 
with gladness and hope by parents. Let parents be- 
lieve in this beautiful mental principle and teach 
their children to love every moral law, and it will 
be well with both parent and child. 



n6 NATURE AND MAN. 

Denominations and Political Parties. 

It is because of this law of child-nature that a 
vastly large per cent of Christian people are mem- 
bers of the Church of their parents, and a large 
per cent of young men are affiliated with the po- 
litical party of their fathers and vote as they do. 
A very large per cent of Baptist Christians would be 
zealous Presbyterians if their parents had been Pres- 
byterians; and an equally large per cent of Pres- 
byterian Christians would be " Much- Water " Bap- 
tists if their parents had been Baptists. Infants 
taken from Roman Catholic parents and brought 
up by foster Methodist parents would make good 
snouting Methodists; and a child of Methodist par- 
ents would, if taken into a Roman Catholic family 
during infancy, make a good and loyal Roman Cath- 
olic. A child scarcely old enough to talk plainly, 
if questioned about churches, will declare his pref- 
erence for the Church of his parents, and, in most 
cases, will not have changed his mind twenty years 
later. And as to politics: Only recently, at a ho- 
tel in McPherson, Kansas, a small boy, on hearing 
his pet dog called a "Democrat," objected and re- 
monstrated against his dog being called a Democrat, 
and declared that the dog was a good Republican. 
The boy's father is a Republican. This boy likely 
will not have changed his politics when he becomes 
a man. 

Children of Christian parents are in sentiment — 
in mental feeling — Methodists, Baptists, Presbyte- 
rians, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, etc., long before 
they know and comprehend the distinguishing differ- 
ences of interpretations of the Bible by the various 
denominations. Thousands of ministers and other 
Bible-readers of equal mental capacity and general 
information disagree as to the meaning of certain 
scriptures, and, in nine cases out of ten, the differ- 
ences are based on impressions and opinions formed 



NATURE AND MAN. 117 

during early childhood, when they possessed very 
little knowledge of what the Bible teaches. 

Who, Then, Is Right? 
In view of the truth, as stated, who is the more 
nearly correct in his Biblical interpretations? In 
my opinion, it is he who interprets each word and 
sentence most nearly as they would be interpreted 
if found in a newspaper or a magazine article. 

Blinded to Truth, They Believe Lies. 
The most eccentric and queer thing with which 
humanity is dealing is mind, which, though mar- 
velous in its capacities — especially when the latter 
are rightly developed along lines of truth during child- 
hood — yet, by a habit of erroneous thinking (more 
especially by children), it can become so deceived 
and blind to truth that it will accept as truth and 
believe in the most absurd doctrines and misrepre- 
sentations of truth along some line of thought and 
hold fast to them throughout the lifetime of the 
blinded. The statement of some psychological facts 
about child-mind will serve to illustrate the truth 
of the foregoing statements. But my motive in de- 
claring the truth about the mental nature of young 
children— the fact that a very large per cent of 
young children take up with and imbibe the relig- 
ious (or anti-religious) and the political sentiments 
of their parents and in after-years occupy the same 
mental viewpoints and support the same Churches 
and political parties as were supported by their par- 
ents — is to prove the very favorable docility or apt- 
ness of children to learn. This truth illustrates how 
easily teachable are young children. These facts, 
showing as they do the favorable nature of young 
minds for learning, ought to be received with great 
delight by all parents who are willing to be prompt 
and thorough in teaching their children while they 
are very young and teachable — before their minds 



n8 NATURE AND MAN. 

become somewhat stubborn or self-willed, and less 
important sentiments occupy them. 

Parental Accountability. 
Parental control and government of the sons and 
daughters belong to and are a part of a home's en- 
vironments, which are positively bad in every home 
where the children, whether they be small or large, 
can obtain parental consent to associate, either at 
home or elsewhere, with any person, male or fe- 
male, whose character is not known to be moral, 
clean, and elevating. As it is the duty of parents 
to keep their children from associating along with 
immoral persons, when a boy or girl is corrupted 
either at home, in the street, or elsewhere, parents 
are personally accountable. Perceive, the parents 
and their influences — their examples, their control 
and their neglect to control, their government and 
their misgovernment — are parts of the environments 
of a child's home. 

When a daughter obtains permission to go, or 
is not restrained from going, to an immoral place, 
as, for instance, a public dance, which usually is a 
place of perverts, immorality, corruption, and de- 
bauchery, the mother is .personally accountable ; as 
her home environments are immoral. Every mother 
living in a civilized community is inexcusably stupid 
and blindly ignorant if she does not know that all 
truly Christian people, and all that class of people 
who, in fact, are moral, clean, and pure in mind, 
regard both dancing (with men) and dancing people 
as immoral, and the public dance as a place of pow- 
erful immoral influences, corruption, and debauch- 
ery. The influences and the opportunities of danc- 
ing parties have, no doubt, corrupted and demoral- 
ized millions of girls and women, and made them 
entirely unfit to become the wives of decent men. 



NATURE AND MAN. 119 

Mental Corruption Dates Far Back. 

But parental fault and gross neglect to cultivate 
the moral faculties and moral affections of her daugh- 
ter date far back of the time when the daughter 
asked her mother's consent to let her go to a dance. 
The truth is, if the mother's moral teachings and 
influences had been as good, refining, and uplifting 
as they ought to have been, the daughter would 
have hated the carnal and immoral associations and 
degrading influences of a dance, and would not have 
asked her mother's consent, and could not have been 
persuaded to go to any place so generally regarded 
by the better class of people of any decent commu- 
nity as hatefully demoralizing. 

Mr. Herbert C. Hart, the well-known evangelist, 
says: "The dance is the entertainment and sport 
of the savage. The lower the race [a people], the 
more they dance. The less the intelligence, the more 
they dance." "In slave times the Negro on the 
plantation, who was too ignorant to read or do any- 
thing intellectual, danced as his favorite amuse- 
ment." "Whenever a man or woman succumbs 
[yields] to the dance, he or she gives up church 
and prayer-meeting, and goes to the devil generally.''' 
The historic dance of Bible times was without ex- 
ception where men and women danced apart, sep- 
arately — ' ' not men and women dancing in each oth- 
er's arms," as they do in the hugging match of the 
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

As to parental influences and control for the 
moral protection and safety of sons and daughters, 
in any case where parental love of virtue is weak, 
the parent's moral influences are correspondingly 
weak. The stronger one's love of virtue, the greater 
his hatred of vice. Where there is no hatred of 
vice, there is no love of virtue. 



i2o NATURE AND MAN. 

Young Girls as Lambs to Be Slaughtered. 
Let me tell you the truth about social conditions 
as they * now are. A girl (or woman) who does not 
know "the whole of the alphabet of morality and of 
immorality and scores of improprieties of words and 
acts, and does not love the elements of morality and 
hate the elements of immorality, is unequipped, un- 
armed, unfortified, and unprepared to meet and suc- 
cessfully resist the urgent, persistent, and determined 
efforts of corrupt men, aided in many cases by im- 
moral, bad women, to deceive and demoralize. And 
girls of this twentieth century, going into society or 
away to work, and not so armed and fortified, are 
as lambs going out to be slaughtered. These things 
are true, because, while there are millions of excel- 
lent people, there also are hundreds of thousands 
of corrupt and demoralized men and women. 

Character Is Made During Childhood. 

Greed, extortion, lying, cheating, stealing, forni- 
cation, adultery, robbery, and murder are, in most 
cases, the fruits or outcome of mental corruption 
or lukewarm morality in the home. Most crimes 
are prompted by mental faculties which were cor- 
rupted and perverted during early childhood; by im- 
moral love first enkindled while surrounded by child- 
hood environments and entertained by the boy or 
girl and manifested (shown) in conduct when age 
and circumstances favored deeds in accord with the 
immoral love and character formed during childhood. 

The usual harmony of children's church, polit- 
ical, and other sentiments with the church, polit- 
ical, and other sentiments of their parents is proof 
of their disposition to agree with and follow the ex- 
amples of their parents; and the fact that most 
children do believe in and hold fast to the senti- 
ments of their early childhood is proof that the 
character formed by the influences of a child's home 



NATURE AND MAN. 121 

environments is lasting. And, as children are nat- 
urally anxious to learn and very easily induced to 
believe whatever their parents teach by words and 
examples, and usually hold fast mentally to such 
doctrines and principles, whether moral or immoral, 
as they are taught, therefore the character of the 
average boy correctly represents the character of his 
home environments. 

Mr. J. C. Sanders, warden of the IowafState 
Penitentiary, in a stirring address in Kansas City, 
recently, at the open meeting of the "Society for 
the Friendless," said: "Seventy-five per cent of 
the burglaries and robberies are committed by men 
under twenty-five years old; and fifty per cent by 
boys under nineteen years old.' 1 Notice, Mr. Sanders 
says ' ' boys under nineteen. ' ' 

Truth — Things as They Are. 

Scores of thousands of children of both sexes are 
perverted, demoralized, and sneaking violators of the 
laws of morality, virtue, and chastity before they 
are a dozen years old — unsuspected by their parents. 
Their badness is detected in after-years. 

Because of immoral home environments, luke- 
warm morality, and neglect to properly control and 
failure to cultivate and develop moral strength and 
love of virtue and hatred of vice, beginning by the 
time a child is old enough to talk, hundreds of 
thousands of boys and girls are demoralized and 
debauched mentally and physically, many of them 
long before they are thirteen years old. And this 
corruption and demoralization, in a large per cent 
of cases, is unsuspected by the lukewarm and stu- 
pidly indulgent and ignorantly confiding parents. 

Hide and Read Novels. 
A mother who is opposed to the reading of the 
average novels, on account of their power to cor- 
rupt, intoxicate, and pervert the moral faculties of 



i22 NATURE AND MAN. 

their readers, told me that her three daughters, who, 
she asserts, have been properly instructed, obtain 
trashy love-story novels, read them in secret, and 
keep them hidden under bedding and other secluded 
places in their home. The truth as to the manner 
and extent she instructed her girls would be a cor- 
rect representation of such moral lessons by word 
and example as the mother did give these girls be- 
fore they were ten years old; and the mother's as- 
sertion that her girls were properly instructed is 
probably not true — not a representation of things 
as they were, and consequently not the truth. The 
average child's mental nature (its disposition to be- 
lieve) disproves her claim that she has been faithful 
to her children. Instead, the truth is, under the 
mental laws governing child-nature, if the moral 
faculties of her three girls had been timely and well 
cultivated, the little spark of natural love in the 
infant mind of each child would have been devel- 
oped, and become, as it were, a mighty blaze — 
strong and influential for everything that is right 
morally. Add to this powerful force of moral love, 
as every mother can and ought, unyielding moral 
dislike and hatred of all sorts of immorality, which 
includes every possible manner of sly and sneaking 
disloyalty, deception, and mental and physical cor- 
ruption and debauchery, and the daughters would 
not have accepted the novels nor be so shamefully 
dishonest and corrupt as her girls are clearly shown 
to be by their hiding novels in order to keep from 
their mother the truth as to their deeds and real 
character. There were, no doubt, faulty home en- 
vironments — defective parental influences — that 
caused the three girls to become novel-readers. 

Badness Is Evidence of Perversion. 
Some people believe that man is naturally bad, 
having come to this conclusion because there are 



NATURE AND MAN. 123 

millions of bad men and women. But this vast 
number is no proof that humanity is naturally bad; 
but is evidence of perversion. Suppose that every 
man in a certain county or in a large city is, in fact, 
bad. The fact would be no proof that all men are, 
in fact, bad. If all the money in circulation in a 
large city or in one of the States were counterfeit, 
this fact would be no proof that there is no genuine 
money. There can be no counterfeits if there are 
no genuine. So, too, the existence of millions of 
immoral, bad men and women does not prove that 
mankind is naturally bad. There are counterfeits 
on many things of merit. Things of little or no 
merit are not supposed to be counterfeited. But 
because man, unperverted, in his genuine state, is 
ideal and of very great merit, there are millions of 
counterfeit men and women. Immoral and corrupt 
men and women are base, vile, and dangerous coun- 
terfeits on humanity. They pose as decent, honest 
people, even pass as Christian people; but usually 
their counterfeit nature is soon detected by the 
genuine and pointed out. 

The truth is, that the vast majority of infantile 
humanity is good naturally; and that bad home en- 
vironments are the foregoing causes of most cases of 
immorality, corruption, vice, and sin. It is on ac- 
count of parental ignorance of mental laws, incom- 
petency, and gross neglect of duty that millions of 
pure-hearted, affectionate, and loving little ones are 
corrupted and perverted in their early childhood and 
thus become counterfeits on genuine humanity. The 
characters of most men and women were fixed and 
molded by parental and home influences, while the 
moral faculties of the minds of children are rapidly 
developing normally or abnormally in accord and 
harmony with the impressions being made on their 
minds by moral and immoral influences; moral influ- 
ences causing moral development, and immoral influ- 



i2 4 NATURE AND MAN. 

ences causing abnormal development and perversion. 
Money, Pleasure, Dress, Fashion, Society. 

As infantile and child humanity is being wronged, 
corrupted, and defrauded while it is too young to 
defend and protect itself from parental errors and 
neglect, it is my sacred duty to tell the truth, as 
it concerns the homes and home environments of 
millions of precious little ones, who, though good 
to-day, may be perverted and bad by to-morrow. 
There must be a very great and general moral ref- 
ormation in the homes before men and women will 
be any better than they now are. 

Belonging to one class of perverted humanity 
are hundreds of thousands of parents who, placing 
a very low valuation on the merits of the ideal man 
and the ideal woman, are far more concerned about 
making money and property than about teaching 
their children the elements of morality; and an- 
other class of vast numbers is stimulated far more 
by abnormal, immoral love of showy dress, fash- 
ions, styles, social clubs, parties, society, theaters, 
dances, and pleasure excursions than by love of 
morality — virtue and honor. There are many par- 
ents who do not know and could not cite to their 
children a dozen of the moral laws which are the 
alphabet of morality. And yet these parents imag- 
ine that they are doing fairly well by their children. 

Ninety-nine out of one hundred of these parents, 
if questioned, will insist that they, personally, were 
property instructed and well brought up. But the 
old maxim, "As the twig is bent the tree is inclined" 
is as true as though it were Scripture. The truth 
expressed in this maxim is proven by the like in- 
clinations and characters of the individual members 
of millions of families. Hundreds of thousands of 
such parents as are not influenced by keen, pure, 
moral love of virtue nor inspired by uncompromis- 



NATURE AND MAN. 125 

ing hatred of immorality, having failed to so culti- 
vate and develop the moral faculties of their chil- 
dren as to arm them with inspiring love for all the 
elements of morality and to fortify them against vice 
by filling their minds with bitter, uncompromising 
hatred of immorality, are personally accountable for 
the corruption and perversion of their sons and 
daughters. 

A Fearful Accountability — Wake Up! 

Yea, they are doubly (twice) accountable: first, 
for failing to properly develop the moral faculties 
of their children; then for inconsiderately and stu- 
pidly consenting to let their boys and girls go into 
company with immoral and carnal-minded boys and 
girls, thus starting their own children on the down- 
ward road to mental corruption and sneaking de- 
bauchery. And, as to the corruption of the daugh- 
ters, the mother is personally accountable far more 
than the father, because the mother and daughters 
are more closely associated, and, in nine cases out 
of ten, she exercises almost exclusive moral care of 
the girls and usually consents to their associations. 

Our Fourth of July, instead of being a day of 
sincere, patriotic sentiment, as it once was, is dese- 
crated by making it a day for money-making and 
for mind-intoxicating public dances, demoralization, 
seductions, and depravity. All this is true of a na- 
tional day that ought to be kept sacredly moral. 

The Mother Hen's Good Examples. 
Behold, I tell the truth (things as they are) and 
lie not, when I say that there have been and that 
there are now hundreds of thousands of parents who 
are less careful and far more neglectful of their chil- 
dren than is the average barn-yard hen, who, faith- 
ful to her family of little chicks, by scratching in 
the dirt, sets the example by which she teaches her 
children how by commendable industry they may 



I2 6 NATURE AND MAN. 

find food. And when she hears or sees a hawk or 
any other danger to her loved ones, she quickly 
ivarns them by her cries and clucks; and so well 
instructed and obedient are her children that, when 
they hear her warning, they run and hide under 
her wings. But in. case the hawk should descend 
to take one of her chicks, there will be no mother's 
consent. No, no! no consent, but a fierce -fight and 
a torn and bleeding mother hen, before he can take 
away one of her children. Contrast the conduct of 
the barn-yard hen and the un-Christian, the nomi- 
nally Christian, the lukewarm, the indifferent, the 
immoral, and the silly and foolish mothers, smilingly 
entrusting and surrendering their daughters to ac- 
company a class of men whom they have less reason 
to trust, because more dangerous to their daughters 
than hawks are to chickens. 

Years ago, one of my little boys, then two or three 
years old, ventured too near a faithful mother-hen 
and her little chicks. The hen became so alarmed 
for the welfare and safety of her chicks that she 
sprang up fiercely into his face, knocking him down 
flat on his back and coming down herself on top, 
and was trying hard to inflict severe punishment, 
when I ran quickly and snatched the frightened 
and screaming child from under her feet. 

Would Wish to Fly Away. 
If the hundreds of thousands of parents who are 
personally accountable (to their own children) for 
their shameful mental condition and immoral char- 
acters could read, plainly printed on the clear skies, 
a correct account of the beginning of the grossly 
scandalous immorality and the continued demor- 
alization of their sons and daughters — thousands of 
the cases dating back to a Fourth of July; and 
other thousands to the time of a dance; and other 
thousands to excursions, late hours in streets, parks, 



NATURB AND MAN. 127 

and elsewhere; and scores of thousands back to 
times of midnight courtships, remembered by many 
victims because of hypocritical professions of love 
and promises never fulfilled and gross, shameful im- 
morality — oh, how many parents would wish to fly 
away and hide from view of the uncovered record 
of sneaking, vile immorality, and long to escape from 
the indelible disgrace and scandal upon their homes ! 
Perceive, under Nature's laws of love, parental 
anxiety and vigilance to fortify (mentally) and pro- 
tect the virtue of their sons and daughters are just 
equal in degree to the father's or mother's love of 
virtue; because it is the stimulating influences of 
love of virtue that causes moral activity and wa ch- 
fulness. Wherefore, if there is a, low degree of moral 
love — a sort of liking, only a friendly sentiment, — 
there will be but little, if any, anxiety and vigilance 
for the moral care of sons and daughters. 

Children "Forewarned Forearmed". 

Parents, to become successful teachers of their 
children, must study and remove causes of weak 
and dormant moral love. Because of mental law 
(the nature of mind), extensive and correct knowl- 
edge of things that are wrong morally is necessary 
to enable a person to make right estimates of the 
damaging influences and demoralizing works of im- 
morality. Under-estimates of the badness of de- 
ceptive, misleading, and awfully evil influences and 
works of immorality, by keeping moral sentiment 
and moral love weak, cause correspondingly low (too 
low) valuations of the good influences and beautiful, 
elevating, and lovable works of morality. A com- 
mon cause of weak and dormant love of morality 
is ignorance of the amount of mind-corrupting, de- 
moralizing works of immorality and far too low 
valuations of morality. 

The two words morality and immorality are col- 



128 NATURE AND MAN. 

lective terms. Morality has reference to and in- 
cludes hundreds of deeds differing one from an- 
other, but each right morally and in accord and 
harmony with all moral laws. Immorality has ref- 
erence to and includes hundreds of deeds differing 
one from another, but each wrong morally, doing 
harm, and violating moral law. Anything what- 
ever that violates a moral principle or law is im- 
moral and wrong. Clean, elevating thoughts and 
deeds in accord and harmony with morality are 
thoughts and works caused by the cultivated moral 
faculties of one's mind. Unclean, degrading thoughts 
ar.d deeds in accord and harmony with immorality 
are the thoughts and works caused by the perverted 
and ccrrupt faculties of one's mind. 

In both cases, affections and love govern the in- 
dividual. In the first case, it is moral love; in the 
second, it is immoral love that governs. As love 
attracts one toward the object loved, so too hatred 
repels or keeps one away from the object hated. 
It is, therefore, vastly important that every child 
be taught what, sort of thoughts and deeds are the 
works of an immoral, corrupt mind, and what sort 
of thoughts and deeds are the works of a moral 
and pure mind. Instead, scarcely one child out of 
ore hundred has been impressively taught any con- 
siderable number of the thousands of differing deeds 
that are clean, moral, and elevating, nor the things 
and deeds that are demoralizing. One of the un- 
avoidable consequences of this parental neglect is 
ignorance, moral starvation; — dwarfed moral facul- 
ties and weak and indifferent moral affections and 
lukewarm love; a mental condition exposing the 
child to corruption and complete perversion the 
first day in bad company. 

For good results, every child must be told of 
and thoroughly instructed, at its home, and long 
before it is ten years old, about hundreds of sorts 



NATURE AND MAN. 129 

of noble, refining, elevating moral deeds — deeds 
prompted by cultivated moral love, as of kindness, 
sympathy, benevolence, and mercy; both words 
and deeds that comfort troubled minds and suffer- 
ing bodies. Such thoughts and deeds as are prompt- 
ed by sympathetic moral affections and love awaken, 
enkindle, and develop a child's moral faculties of 
mind. 

And, too, children must be thoroughly informed, 
long before they are ten years old, of hundreds of 
sorts of immorality — of thoughts, things, and deeds 
that are prompted by sympathy and love for things 
that are immoral, unclean, corrupting, and hateful. 
The moral affections and moral love of the average 
child are easily increased by the recitals of tor- 
menting troubles, privations, destitution, and pov- 
erty; of intemperance, disloyalty, and infidelity; of 
theft, robbery, and murder; of corrupt associations, 
broken-up homes and separated and scattered broth- 
ers and sisters; of regrets, sorrow, and grief; and of 
a hundred other evils, all works of immorality; these, 
feelingly and sympathetically told, will engender and 
develop holy dislike and uncompromising hatred of 
immorality. Remember, the more knowledge one 
has of the dangerous works of immorality, the more 
he can hate it. ' And as hatred of an evil repels the 
hater and keeps him away from the object or thing 
hated, therefore the greater the hatred of an evil, 
the better for humanity. 

I have told you truthfully that love of right and 
hatred of wrong makes one doubly strong. Let both 
be taught in every home. 

Nominal Members of Good Society. 

Hundreds of thousands of heedless, neglectful 

parents, to whom I have been referring, are not 

equally bad. Many thousands whose influences are 

corrupting are not, personally, willfully and malig- 



i 3 o NATURE AND MAN. 

nantly bad. Instead, many thousands there are 
whose moral faculties or powers were but poorly 
fed — almost starved — during childhood, their moral 
affections and love so little developed and weak, 
that, while they rather would appear as if on the 
moral side of any question, yet they feel too little 
interest in any matter in which a moral principle 
is involved to make a strong and successful effort 
to oppose anything wrong morally. 

A few days ago I wanted to employ two young 
women to work as salespeople in a store; and, pre- 
ferring Christian girls, believing such to be most 
nearly ideal, I asked a minister for information as 
to the character of two persons, and he said: "They 
are nominal members of my Church." He really 
meant that they are nominal Christians — Christians 
in name only. So, too, it may be said, truthfully, 
of many thousands of parents to whom I have been 
referring: they are nominal members of good so- 
ciety, but, in fact, no part of good society, because 
any society no better than they is not good society. 
Modern society! Ah! there are many, many social, 
carnal-minded vultures active, influential, and pop- 
ular members of numerous social clubs — of modern 
society; many who really belong with that sort of 
people whom I denominate Home-Wreckers. 



SNEAKING HOME- WRECKERS. 



Satan Can Go No Lower. 



The Unequaled Liars — the Greatest Frauds. 

Many people believe that women possess greater 
natural, innate moral capacity for goodness — for do- 
ing good deeds — than men. If it is really true that 
women possess greater moral capacity than men, 
then it also is equally true that they possess greater 



NATURE AND MAN. 131 

immoral capacity than men do; because, when one's 
moral faculties (mental powers) pervert (turn from 
good to bad), none of their mental power or force 
is lost, but reversed. To illustrate, we know that 
a steamboat going east on a lake loses none of its 
physical force when it reverses or turns right-about 
and goes west. So, too, of one's perverted moral 
faculties (mental powers); they are not broken by 
perversion, but reversed, turned right-about and go- 
ing wrong, and impelled by an unchanged amount 
of mental force and energy. Wherefore every per- 
son's moral capacity is the correct measure of and 
just equal to what his immoral capacity will be, in 
case of his perversion. 

As to my opinion of women? Now, after hav- 
ing made humanity a careful analytical study for 
half a century, I am convinced that a pure-hearted 
woman is the best thing in the world — a little better 
than man, because, generally, in closer accord and 
harmony with the elements of morality. An intel- 
ligent, pure-hearted, loyal wife is the best thing — 
the greatest treasure that any man can have. She 
is an angel that money can not buy. 

Satan Can Go No Lower. 
And, if it be true that a woman is endowed by 
Nature with greater moral capacity for doing good 
deeds and good works, it also is equally true that, 
when she perverts (turns bad) and becomes an adul- 
teress, she has gone down to the lowest depth of 
mental corruption, demoralization, and depravity, 
and can go no lower. Loyalty (virtue, chastity) is 
the moral foundation of the marriage relation — the 
foundation that underlies and precedes all other con- 
siderations; and loyalty to the marriage relation 
also is the foundation of moral respect, love, and 
confidence, and, too, the foundation of every decent 
home. Wherefore there are no words in any Ian- 



i 3 2 NATURE AND MAN. 

guage sufficiently forceful to fully express the aw- 
ful consequences that follow the disloyalty of a hus- 
band or wife. It is the maximum of treason against 
husband, wife, home, and family. The inexcusable 
consent to the treasonable act of adultery inoculates 
with contagious mental corruption every moral fac- 
ulty, and quickly corrupts, debauches, and perverts 
all one's moral powers of mind, and deprives the 
victim of sincere love of decency, morality, virtue, 
and honor; thus producing a polluted mental con- 
dition nastier, filthier, more obnoxious, more dis- 
gusting, and far more loathsome to a pure mind 
than the sight of a human being covered with ma- 
lignant, festering sores, scabs, ulcers, cancers, small- 
pox, and creeping, wiggling vermin. 

That women naturally are better and purer than 
men seems to be proven by her complete abandon- 
ment of truth and honor, as when the husband finds 
her in unauthorized, inexcusable, and sneaking as- 
sociation with another man. She then declares that 
she is entirely innocent of any wrong whatever; and, 
defending her vile, carnal associate, she proceeds to 
attack, vilify, belie, and slander the loyal husband 
whom she betrays. And, as there is no affinity be- 
tween virtue and vice, the purer the character of 
a betrayed husband (or wife), the deeper and wider 
is the mental gulf that separates them. She will be 
no lower when she plans with her sneaking accom- 
plice to murder the husband whom she has betrayed, 
as has been done in thousands of cases. I could 
mention several of recent date. All the degrading 
influences of poverty, together with all the corrupt- 
ing influences of immorality that can affect, corrupt, 
and demoralize the environments of the home, do 
not nearly equal the corrupting and perverting in- 
fluences,, of a vile, sneaking, hypocritical, adulter- 
ous 'mother. If she were to meet the same personal 
Satanliwhom the Bible says was cast out of Heaven, 



NATURE AND MAN. 133 

and ask him how she could most completely de- 
moralize herself and wreck her home, he could tell 
her of no other way by which she could so com- 
pletely corrupt herself, pervert her children, and 
damn the home as by becoming a sneaking, lying 
traitor to her husband. 

Of all the shades and sorts of criminals result- 
ing more often from evil childhood environments, 
there are no other criminals so depraved as the 
sneaking, home-wrecking adulterer and adulteress. 
Many of these vile human vultures wear fine clothes, 
are popular members of social clubs and nominal 
members of churches, and withal fluent and pleas- 
ing in conversation and deceivingly polite when in 
mixed company. The vile adulterer usually is very 
polite and even overly attentive to the opposite sex. 
But as to the low crime of adultery, no other base, 
vile, sinful depravity results in the telling of so 
many lies, nor so much villainy, as that of the 
adulteress. She is easily the greatest liar, the big- 
gest sinner, the unequaled betrayer and traitor. As 
a hypocritical fraud, defrauder, deceiver, and rob- 
ber, she has no equal. Unparalleled are her sins 
against her husband to whom she has pledged her 
loyalty — a sacred pledge for which he gave her a 
good and lawful title to a large per cent of all the 
money and property that belonged to him at the 
time of their marriage, and a marriage right to a 
like large per cent of every dollar's worth of money 
and property that he may accumulate after mar- 
riage; and her pledge of love and loyalty was the 
price which she agreed to pay in exchange for the 
share, a part of all he possessed and would acquire. 
Without her pledge of love and loyalty he could 
not have been induced to marry her. 

Behold, how highly he valued her love and pledge 
of life-long loyalty, as is shown clearly in his mar- 
riage pledge of the large interest in all that he was 



i 3 4 NATURE AND MAN. 

worth and in all his future labor, earnings, and in- 
heritance! But all this does not nearly represent 
the full measure of a husband's valuation of a wife's 
moral character. No, no; far from it. Instead, if 
she were to call on him for protection in defense of 
her virtue, he would not hesitate a second to rush 
to her aid, even at a dangerous risk of his life, for 
her defense. Her vile, sneaking partner in crime 
has made no pledges of loyalty to the husband 
whom she betrays, but does not hesitate to betray 
a faithful wife to whom he hypocritically professes 
love and loyalty, if wife he has. 

The Unequaled Liar. 

A liar is a person who makes a false statement 
or misrepresentation with design and intention to 
deceive. A liar is criminally accountable for a lie 
(a misrepresenting statement) every time that one 
of his or her lies is innocently repeated by the per- 
son to whom the lie was told, and for a lie every 
time any other person innocently repeats the false- 
hood, not knowing it to be an untruth. Perceive, 
it is the originator of a false and untruthful state- 
ment that is guilty and criminally accountable ev- 
ery time a lie is repeated or retold, and not the 
people who are innocent and most wronged. 

The adulteress is an arch liar and persists in ly- 
ing every time that she speaks to her illegitimate 
offspring, or to any other person, of her husband as 
being the father of such son or daughter. And, if 
we estimate that she so speaks of her husband ten 
times a day for twenty years, she will have lied 
seventy-three thousand times. But these are not 
nearly all. She also is guilty of and accountable 
for a lie every time her illegitimate offspring calls her 
husband " papa " or "father," because she put the 
falsehood into his head and instructed him to call 
the husband "papa" and "father." And, if we esti- 



NATURE AND MAN. 135 

mate that her illegitimate progeny will call the hus- 
band "papa" or ' 'father" on an average of ten times 
a day for twenty years, she will be guilty of and ac- 
countable for another count of seventy-three thous- 
and lies. Ah! yet more. She is accountable for an- 
other and still another lie every time that the il- 
legitimate offspring affixes the husband's surname to 
his or her given name; and if we estimate that the il- 
legitimate boy or girl will do so averaging five times 
a day for twenty years, the adulterous mother will 
be accountable for thirty-six thousand and five hun- 
dred lies, in addition to the numbers above stated, 
or a total of one hundred and eighty-two thousand 
and five hundred lies. 

But the above figures are an underestimate of 
the real number of her falsehoods, because they con- 
tinue multiplying after twenty years; and, too, there 
are, in fact, many cases in which the above figures, 
to make a correct showing, must be multiplied by 
two, three, and on and on up. 

And further about robbery. I have said noth- 
ing yet of her robbery of her husband of labor and 
money, amounting to very large sums, used to feed, 
clothe, and educate her illegitimate children. And 
still more sin — the monster sin against the unfortun- 
ate illegitimates . There are no w T ords in any language 
capable of expressing the enormity of the wrong in- 
flicted upon an unlawful child. Think of a person 
being deprived of the acquaintance with one of his 
parents as a parent. Think of a person frequently 
seeing his or her father, and yet ignorant of the fact, 
while he or she is told by the mother that another is 
his or her father! 

Every clean, pure - minded father and mother 
transmit to their children pure minds and moral 
inclinations, which are mental inheritances of far, 
far greater value than any man's money and prop- 
erty. Decent, lawful parentage and a pure mind and 



1 36 NATURE AND MAN. 

moral inclinations are the birthright of every child; 
and everyone who does not inherit such all-desirable 
qualities of mind is criminally, sinfully defrauded by 
one or both its parents. Every parent who, by be- 
ing mentally corrupt, not only defrauds the child 
out of its most valuable rights, but also transmits 
to the child an abnormal and corrupt nature — a 
parentally imposed curse (infliction) that makes or 
is very liable to make the accused son or daughter a 
life-long slave to a corrupt mind and degrading ten- 
dencies. The home environments, in such cases, 
usually are decidely unfavorable to conversion. 

No one who knows of the extent and enormity 
of the consequences of the sins of sneaking home- 
wreckers, as I do, will think my analyses of such 
sleek and dangerous frauds too severe. Surely, if 
there be no division walls in Hades, these sneaking, 
pretentious, deceptive, and lying home-wreckers will 
seriously further corrupt and degrade that better 
class of the inhabitants of that place of corruption 
and punishment! 

CHARACTER VALUATION. 



Human Character and Its Elements or Com- 
position: Good Character and Bad 
Character Compared. 



One Standard for Men and Women. 

It has been said, and truthfully, that ' ' the char- 
acter of a people is more important than the busi- 
ness of a nation." Human character is not of fine, 
costly, well-fitting, tailor-made clothes. It is not 
of silks, satins, and fine linens. It is not of lands, 
farms, city lots, and fine mansions. It is not of 
learned, scholarly attainments. It is not of pro- 
fessions. It is not of social standing. It is not of 
inherited birthrights. It is not of kind words elo- 



NATURE AND MAN. 137 

quently expressed. It is not of color, size, and bulk. 
No, no; it is of none of these; but it is more lovable, 
more sacred, and far more valuable than all the 
things I have mentioned. 

Character is of the mind, mental; wherefore 
character is not of things visible to eyes and tan- 
gible to hands, nor of anything that can be bought 
and sold. As both good and bad character are of 
mind, to determine what constitutes good charac- 
ter, we must have a correct standard or measure of 
what is to be taken as good character. A standard 
in commerce is an established and lawful measure; 
as, for instance, thirty-six inches is the standard of 
one yard. It takes the whole number, thirty-six 
inches, to make a lawful yard. A piece of cloth 
thirty-five inches long is not a lawful yard. So the 
honest merchant uses a measure exactly thirty-six 
inches long for a yard. Each of the thirty-six inches 
is a necessary constituent element of the standard 
yard. A merchant who intentionally gives a cus- 
tomer only thirty-five inches of cloth for a yard is 
bad and liable to be arrested for cheating. Now, 
as we can not measure immaterial things by a stand- 
ard composed of material or matter of any sort, we 
look to Nature and find that she furnishes a con- 
venient and correct standard or lawful measure of 
what constitutes good character. 

Moral principles are Nature's standard and the 
elements or composition of good character. Love 
of all Nature's moral laws is the inclusive element 
of good character. Truthfulness, honesty, sincer- 
ity, moral s}^mpathy, moral love, mental purity, 
chastity, unselfishness, friendship, industry, and so- 
briety are necessary elements and mental composi- 
tion of good character. If any one of these ele- 
ments is not found in the make-up of a man's char- 
acter, he is far too short morally. If, then, a man 
be measured by a standard that leaves out any one 



1 38 NATURE AND MAN. 

of the moral laws, his character will be far more 
imperfect than the thirty-five-inch yard; as an ele- 
ment of good character is of vastly greater value 
than anything of matter and measured by the stand- 
ard yard. 

While principles in line and accord with the 
moral laws of Nature constitute the standard of 
good character, their opposites or opponents are 
the elements of bad character. Wherefore untruth- 
fulness, dishonesty, mental impurity, immoral love, 
pretension, laziness, haughty pride, deception, and 
insobriety are some of the elements of bad char- 
acter. The elements of immorality are the elements 
of bad character. 

The laws of Nature and the Bible set up but one 
standard of purity for both sexes. What is wrong 
in the one is wrong in the other. Whatever is mor- 
ally right in the male is right in the female. Both 
men and women are under one and the same law 
of the great Law-maker. The people of this world 
have made two standards of purity — one for men 
and the other for women. Under the two-standard 
system, the young man is not required to be as pure 
as the young woman. More virtue is demanded of 
the young woman than of the man who shamefully 
betrays her. This wrong is degrading and demor- 
alizing many thousands of the young men of Amer- 
ica. They know that equal purity is not expected 
of them, and so take liberties and do things that 
some of them would neither take nor do if the 
standard were the same for men as for women. The 
standard for women is none too high — in fact, not 
high enough; and must not be lowered. But the 
standard for men must be raised, for the better pro- 
tection of women and the elevation and betterment 
of men. 

But of character, as love is the dominating, con- 
trolling element of one's mind, the things and prin- 



NATURE AND MAN. 139 

ciples he most loves, whether they be moral or im- 
moral, are representative and proof of the nature 
and quality of his personal character. Works, wheth- 
er moral or immoral, are usually the fruits of good 
or bad character. But, on account of perversion 
and deceitfulness and a disposition to appear bet- 
ter than one is, very few people are as good, even, 
as their talk and some deeds indicate. Wherefore 
it is dangerous to believe that people are at all 
better than their worst known words; as "from 
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," 
though sometimes restrained by deceptive prudence. 
A hypocrite says and does many good things to de- 
ceive, when he expects to gain a point in favors, 
as of money or some other coveted object or thing. 
Wherefore good words and deeds by a person of 
bad character are subject to just suspicion of being 
deceptive baits. It is love — the wonderful power of 
love — influenced and molded by one's valuation of 
moral principles, that makes one's character. High 
valuation on all moral principles makes a man's 
affections and love moral and his character good. 
Low valuation of morality makes one bad. Low 
Valuation on moral principles influences one's love 
and makes it immoral; and the evil influences of 
one whose love is immoral corrupt the minds of 
his associates by giving them a too low valuation 
on morality; and the too low valuation perverts 
associates and makes bad character. 

Many thousands of parents, by rejecting or by 
putting low valuations on moral and Christian prin- 
ciples, lower the only correct standard of good char- 
acter and thus corrupt and degrade their own homes, 
themselves, and their children. So does every hus- 
band and every wife who talks against and opposes 
persons and organizations that are working and 
struggling for the observance and enforcement of 
moral principles. Every moral principle is a de- 



i 4 o NATURE AND MAN. 

creed law of Nature, and consequently a law of 
the Creator, because the omnipotent Creator con- 
ceived and decreed the government of Nature and 
all its laws. 

The estimate one puts on the elements of good 
character is the mental basis or foundation of his 
own character. High valuation on moral principles 
is the foundation for good character; and low valu- 
ation on moral principles is the foundation for bad 
character. 

A Dollar's Worth of Mental Purity. 

It is one's valuation of moral principles that gov- 
erns his affections; and his affections govern his 
character. One's affections for good character go 
up or down along with his valuation of character; 
and are strong when his valuation is high, and are 
weak when his valuation is low. Thus one's valu- 
ation on moral principles, which are the elements 
of good character, governs his love; and love gov- 
erns him. Love is mental sentiment (feeling) in- 
spired by ardent admiration of what one values for 
its qualities, merits, or beauty, or because of its 
demerits. A dollar's worth of mental purity, vir- 
tue, truth, fidelity, or honor is worth fully as much 
as one hundred cents in gold, silver, or property of 
any sort, and is so regarded by normal, unperverted 
humanity. The higher one's valuation of anything, 
whether it be money, property, honor, or mental 
purity, virtue, and fidelity, the more watchful and 
careful will he be to protect and keep it in its full 
and unbroken value. 

The difference in people's estimates of the im- 
portance and value of good character is fully as 
great as the difference between one dollar and one 
thousand dollars, and just equals the difference in 
the character of people. Any person feels far more 
keenly concerned and is far more watchful over a 



NATURE AND MAN. 141 

pocket-book containing one thousand dollars than 
over one containing one dollar. The difference in 
people's character - valuations makes, to a wide 
extent, the differences in the character of people. 
Thousands of sons and daughters are sacrificed for 
less value than one dollar by stupidly entrusting 
them with men who do not possess the elements of 
good character, and with men and women in places 
where a parent would not trust or risk a thousand 
dollars; as at public dances, hotels, rooming-houses, 
and many other places where a thousand dollars in 
a daughter's pocket would be far safer than the girl's 
good character is at many of such places. Some 
parents say, "We can trust our young folks." Mis- 
placed confidence, in most cases, is one of the con- 
sequences of too low valuation of good character 
and leads to the perversion and ruin of many thous- 
ands of young people every twenty-four hours. A 
parent who is not afraid to trust the young people 
in improper company, whether public or private, 
either puts a shamefully low estimate on the value 
of clean, moral character or is as stupid and igno- 
rant as a man who, having inherited money, loans 
it to irresponsible people without security. 

Parents give their children . their own estimate 
of character, whether it be high or low. The mother, 
more than the father, fixes in the mind of a daugh- 
ter her own estimation of the value of moral char- 
acter, and in future years the daughter's valuation 
will be pretty sure to correspond with the moral valu- 
ation the mother put upon herself. The daughter is 
not likely to put a higher valuation on her own 
moral character than the mother seems to put upon 
hers. During childhood and youth the mother and 
father are constantly adding to or substracting from 
the son's and the daughter's estimation of charac- 
ter. The manner in which the mother treats im- 
proprieties {and immodest words and acts are impro- 



1 42 NATURE AND MAN. 

prieties prompted by an unclean, coarse mind), and 
whether the mother frowns upon and resists or smiles 
and laughs, and thus encourages improprieties, has 
much to do in forming and molding a daughter's 
opinion of the quality and firmness of her mother's 
moral character; and also much to do in forming 
the character of the daughter, who is not likely to 
be much, if any, better morally than the mother. 
In a very large majority of cases in which a daugh- 
ter puts a too low estimation on the worth of good 
character, the mother is personally accountable; as 
the mother's opportunities are ample to enable her 
to enkindle and develop the moral faculties of the 
minds of her children, leading them to love the moral 
principles that constitute good character, and to hate 
everything immoral, unclean, obnoxious, and antag- 
onistic to good character. The father may have 
failed to aid a good and dutiful mother; but, in 
a very large per cent of homes, the father is away 
from the child much of the time and has compara- 
tively but little chance to mold the character of 
his children, and the monster responsibility is upon 
the mother. 

But about the moral force of high esteem, ad- 
miration, and valuation of moral character: any 
person will offer far braver, greater, and more res- 
olute and determined resistance against a robbery 
of one thousand dollars than he would against a 
loss of one dollar. And it is so, too, of a woman 
who values her moral character worth millions of 
dollars (and any one's character, if of moral prin- 
ciples, is worth more than millions in gold, silver, 
and property): she will make a desperate fight to 
protect it. Parents having failed by negligence, as 
many thousands do, to make their sons and daugh- 
ters sincerely believe that good character is, in fact, 
worth far more than any man's friendship and more 
than any man's property and money, and not to be 



NATURE AND MAN. 143 

surrendered for carnal friendship and love, not even 
though it be the love of a millionaire, the daughter 
may, as a consequence of such neglect, become the 
demoralized, disgraced, and debauched victim of 
some sleek, pretentious, and successfully deceptive 
human vulture and robber of good character. 

Moral worth is to be valued highly for the many 
mental comforts and blessings that are fruits of 
good character, and is to be esteemed and highly 
valued for protecting and saving virtuous people 
from many tormenting regrets and sorrows, such as 
are common fruits of vice. Believe me, and doubt 
not, that a man's moral worth, if he is moral, is as 
real as his money and property worth. In fact, 
moral worth, as in mental purity, chastity, honor, 
etc., as far exceeds money and property worth as 
a million dollars exceed the value of one cent. We 
hear or read about a parent giving a son or daugh- 
ter property valued at millions of dollars; but I 
insist that a father or mother whose moral influ- 
ences give a son or daughter a very high valuation 
on all the elements of good character does more for 
the welfare of the child than a parent who gives 
millions of dollars and a low valuation on moral 
principles, which are the elements of good character. 

Character- Valuation Far Too Low. 
A right, true, and correct valuation of good char- 
acter would put a stop to nearly everything that 
is wrong morally. People would love morality. The 
fact is, good character is not valued at one-tenth 
its true worth. Parents do not teach their sons and 
daughters the right and true value of good char- 
acter. No person can successfully teach the right 
and true value of good character without first teach- 
ing what tilings or principles are the make-up of 
good character. In other words, no son or daugh- 
ter can put a right and true valuation on good 



i 4 4 NATURE AND MAN. 

character without first knowing what are the ele- 
ments or composition of good character; as it is 
necessary to estimate the value of each element or 
part,to find the total value. And, too, no teacher 
can succeed in an effort to make a boy or girl put 
a right valuation on any one of the elements of 
good character without contrasting the element of 
good character and the corresponding element of 
bad character, to show clearly and impressively the 
vast and damaging difference between the good and 
the bad, between the elements when normal and 
when perverted. The comparison will show clearly 
the hatefulness of immorality, which is the compo- 
sition of bad character. Wherefore, to succeed in 
making a right and correct valuation on good char- 
acter, one must know what are the elements both 
of good character and of bad character, else he can 
not compare one with the other. 

The fundamental elements of good character are : 
truth, sincerity, honesty, sympathy, moral love, puri- 
ty, chastity, generosity (unselfishness), moral friend- 
ship, prudence, modesty, self-respect, industry, tem- 
perance, abstinence from all vice, and sobriety. Any 
one of these elements of good character, when per- 
verted (turned wrong), becomes an element of bad 
character; and every one is liable to perversion. 
Truth, an element of good character, when pervert- 
ed, becomes a lie; honesty, perverted, becomes dis- 
honesty; sobriety becomes insobriety or drunken- 
ness. Sympathy, generosity, friendship, love, and 
industry — each of these belong both to good char- 
acter and to bad character. When they belong to 
good character, each is in hearty sympathy and love 
with morality and doing right. But, when pervert- 
ed, they belong to bad character and are in sym- 
pathy and love with immorality and doing wrong. 

A truth is a normal and desirable thing. A true 
statement or representation of things as they were 



NATURE AND MAN, 145 

and as they are is truth. A lie is an abnormal, 
hateful thing. A false statement or misrepresent- 
ation of things, intentionally, is a lie. A lie is a 
trouble-maker, causing enmity, quarrels, fights, and 
murder. By lies many thousands of people have 
been robbed of property, lands, homes, friends; and 
many sent to prison or hanged. A truth is worth 
as much more than a lie as the works of truth are 
better than the works of lies. If lies deprive men 
of friends, property, lands, homes, liberty, and life, 
truth would have been worth all these things to the 
men who lost such things by lies. 

Sobriety, an element of good character, is worth 
all the difference between the condition and works 
of a sober man and the condition and works of a 
drunken man. Compare the low, demoralized, de- 
graded, and debauched condition of an intoxicated 
man, deprived of reason and decency, with a man 
sober and governed by reason, self-respect, and de- 
cency, and hnd the value of the element of sobriety. 

Now I have compared only two elements of good 
character against two of bad character; and, were 
I to go on and contrast other elements, there are 
thousands of people who would be much surprised 
at the disgusting filth and the deception, hypocrisy, 
craft, and cunning of the elements of bad character 
and astonished at the vast, enormous value of good 
character. Finally, have faith in right. If any man 
in the habit of lying will think after each lie and 
consider, his own reason will soon convince him that 
the truth, in each case, would have served far better. 



146 NATURE AND MAN. 

HANDS OFF ! 



Self-Control, Prudence, Modesty, Self- 
Respect: The Practical Armor 
for Moral Self-Defense. 

Draw the line of propriety between the two sexes, 
between the male and the female, between the six- 
year-old girl and boy, and keep it drawn. Teach 
the little girls to keep their hands off the boys, ex- 
cept their own brothers,, and teach the girl from 
the age of six years that her body and limbs are 
her own, and that it is not right to allow the boys 
any personal freedom with her person. Teach her 
the necessary and most important of moral rules: 
Hands off! 

Teach the boys that they may run, romp, and 
play with boys. Draw the judicious, protecting, 
educating line of moral propriety between the two 
sexes, and make ' 'Hands off !" the motto of every 
child of six years and up; and your children, grow- 
ing up with this all-expressive and far better than 
golden motto written upon their hearts and becom- 
ing a loved principle — a rule — of their inmost souls, 
will in after-years much more easily protect them- 
selves against the grossly immoral and degrading 
influences of the shamefully common, unrestrained, 
and demoralizing personal familiarity and freedom 
of both boys and girls of modern times. This most 
unreasonable and bold personal freedom is unciv- 
il, immoral, coarse, rude, vulgar, and demoralizing. 
This vulgar, soul-destroying familiarity, if allowed 
and practiced, removes and destroys all proper per- 
sonal restraint of both boys and girls, and makes 
both sexes bold, ill-behaved, and ill-mannered; and 
it destroys and prevents proper respect of the two 
sexes, one for the other. If parents, guardians, and 
teachers will draw this necessary moral line of pru- 



NATURE AND MAN. 147 

dence and propriety between the""two"~sexes, girls 
will know how and be able to protect themselves 
against the millions of carnal-minded boys^and^lewd 
men who constantly and successfully seek to get 
improper control of young girls and women without 
marriage. 

Any woman possessing as much good common 
sense as mothers need and must have to guide them 
rightly in teaching children will quickly see that 
there is wisdom in this rule of "Hands off!" It 
is a practical, sensible, and necessary 7 rule, enforc- 
ing upon both sexes mental and physical control, 
propriety, prudence, and modesty of conduct. It is 
a rule which, when enforced, commands respect, and 
is the woman's most powerful shield and self-defense, 
both in public and in private life. As it is hard 
to break away from and discontinue a bad habit, 
especially after it has been practiced during youth, 
it is far better to keep children from forming a bad 
habit, and have them form the good habit of keep- 
ing their "hands off" the opposite sex. 

No girl past six years old, and no woman of 
any age, should either practice or allow personal 
hand - familiarities with the opposite sex. Every 
miss and woman ought to resent an} 7 such famil- 
iarity or freedom, as in taking hold, putting hands 
on, or handling her in any way, as rude, highly 
improper, and insulting, and quickly resent and dis- 
approve such freedom as not at all allowable. Does 
anyone who loves humanity and mental purity think 
that six years of age is too soon to draw the pro- 
tecting, shielding line of propriety? It is not; no, 
it is not too soon — no, not a day too soon. I have 
had excellent opportunities for the study of human 
nature all along during the past fourty years, and 
within eight years have been a guest at more than 
two thousand hotels and boarding-houses, and have 
called personally at more than one hundred thous- 



i 4 8 • NATURE AND MAN. 

and private homes distributed over many States; 
and were I to particularize and itemize what I have 
seen and learned, parents would quickly agree with 
me, and adopt and enforce this unequaled rule — 
Hands off ! 

Many Children Thoroughly Demoralized. 

There are many thousands of perverted, demor- 
alized, and debauched girls and boys not a dozen 
years old, in cities and in small towns, some of whom 
I have seen in public parks and streets advertising 
their debauched condition by "flirting" and unclean 
words. If these corrupt and ruined children had 
been taught and induced to practice the golden rule, 
' 'Hands off !" from the age of six years and up, and 
to shun rude boys and tom-boy girls, ' and to hate 
their ways, they would not have been demoralized 
and debauched, but would have been as modest, 
good, and pure as the girls who now shun them 
and hate their hateful ways. 

Since an article headed ' ' Hands Off ! ' ' was pub- 
lished in my book entitled "Man: Body, Mind, and 
Soul," I have heard scores of hearty endorsements 
of the rule, " Hands off!" Observing, thoughtful peo- 
ple know that larger and coarser improprieties fol- 
low the smaller and less ruinous ones, increasing in 
boldness and badness until the time and hour of 
ruin comes ; ' ' Hands Off ' ' . 

Do not be deceived and misled by seeing a 
teacher or supposedly educated person doing the 
things that this article condemns. Improper, rude, 
and coarse conduct by educated people is neither 
more refined nor more respectable than when done 
by uneducated and ignorant people. Remember 
that extensive school, college, and State university 
education is absolutely no proof of moral character. 
This meddlesome use of hands and arms is a man- 
ifestation of the carnal, animal nature, purely ani- 



NATURE AND MAN. 149 

mal, exciting coarse, animal nature and passions, 
and would be proper and natural among cats Jand 
dogs, monkeys, and apes; but is not proper with peo- 
ple supposed to possess immortal souls, who ought 
to be cultivated and fitted for pure thoughts, deeds, 
and noble lives. Meddlesome hands, embracing 
arms, and caressing lips, aided by the natural but 
misdirected human affections and lower passions, 
along with deceptive professions of love and sincer- 
ity, are means used to deceive, demoralize, and 
ruin young people of the female sex. By playful, 
sportive laying-on of hands, taking hold, pulling, 
pushing, and scuffling, improper and demoralizing 
personal familiarity and freedom is established in 
a few hours, or in a few days, that, under proper 
and genteel restraint, could not have been obtained 
in many years. 

Every fairly intelligent parent, after a little 
thought, will perceive the evil tendency — the im- 
moral effects and influences of meddlesome hands — 
and suggest and provide other and far better amuse- 
ments, plays, and sports. It is right, proper, and 
desirable that children and young people have rest 
from work. They ought to be young, happy, and 
joyful before they are old. But there are plays 
that are both harmless and amusing and also in- 
structive, some one or more of which ought to be 
in every home. The common cards, so much used 
in saloons and gambling, are not included as in- 
structive, as they are not; they develop no useful 
capacity of mind. 

Prepare for War in Times of Peace. 
It is in times of peace and good-will, when a 
government is on most peaceful and friendly terms 
with all other governments, that it builds great 
warships and arms them with powerful cannon, and 
keeps and disciplines thousands of soldiers ready 



i 5 o NATURE AND MAN. 

for war. All these precautions are considered wise 
and necessary self-protection against nations and 
people who are professedly its friends, some one 
of whom may at any time prove untrue and tres- 
pass on its territory and rights. But the friendship 
of the individual is no truer and no more trust- 
worthy than that of nations: hundreds of thous- 
ands of men disregard their promises and pledges 
of friendship to young women; and thousands ^of 
confiding, trusting girls are betrayed, every year, 
in the United States. Young women — thousands 
of whom are mere children, many not a dozen years 
old — are perverted, demoralized, debauched, and 
ruined by associates professedly their friends. 

Parents, wake up! "Hands off !" is a good rule 
and strong fortress of self-protection for your loved 
ones. A government's warships are judicious, time- 
ly warning to friendly governments that she will 
resist any trespass on her territory and rights. And 
likewise the judicious moral rule, "Hands off !" is 
a proper and genteel notice to all friends that the 
girl or woman is armed morally, and will protect 
herself against any trespass on her moral and civil 
rights. 

Young woman, if you wish to be both respect- 
able and respected, listen not to anyone who makes 
light of these sacred facts, while he perhaps seeks 
to deceive and demoralize you, mind and body; 
but consider favorably these truths and protect your 
honor and virtue, and gain merited respect by this 
golden rule, "Hands off !" Every truly decent man 
will endorse this as a good rule. 

Every girl and woman ought to regard the hand- 
ling of her arms and body as an exclusive personal 
right, and be bold and brave in asserting and de- 
fending the same as such, especially against the 
opposite sex. It is a privilege which, during single 
life, belongs exclusively to the maid, and to be 



NATURE AND MAN. 151 

shared only with the husband in married life. If 
a woman has not the honor, love of propriety and 
virtue, and the courage to protect and defend these, 
her sacred rights before marriage, how can a man 
reasonably expect her to defend and protect them 
as her husband's rights after marriage ? 

Men Marry to Get Possession. 

I tell you truthfully that a man of any age, 
young or old, after having been allowed improper 
freedom with a girl or woman, does not respect 
her one-half so much as he would if she had said, 
in public and private places, "Hands off!" and 
in forty-nine cases out of fifty will not marry her. 
Courtship and promises of marriage being of no con- 
sequence, he will easily abandon her, when for any 
reason he wishes so to do; or he may murder her, 
as many men have done. Men marry for posses- 
sion; if, then, a girl or woman has already given 
a man possession of her mind and body, he will 
not marry her, unless he be forced to by circum- 
stances, in which case the marriage will be unhappy 
until separation by divorce or desertion. He may 
have been as much or more to blame, as great or a 
greater sinner, than she, but this fact will not in- 
duce him to marry her, except it be with the secret 
thought of soon getting a divorce. 

Remember and believe me, I tell the truth and 
lie not: Such acts of meddlesome hands and arms 
as I have referred to are incited (caused) by men- 
tal corruption, and are carnal, coarse, rude, ungen- 
tlemanly, immoral, and demoralizing. They are 
prompted by corrupt minds and are neither a sign 
nor an indication of moral respect or decent love. 
If, however, there exists a spark of pure love, it 
is soon corrupted and perverted in any case where 
a woman allows the freedom of meddlesome hands 
and arms. Moral confidence is quickly destroyed; 



i 5 2 NATURE AND MAN. 

and the man will entertain no sincere thoughts of 
marriage to a woman who has not the self-respect, 
love of virtue, and the courage to order his hands off. 

Sports and Pleasure-Seekers. 
As a class, with very few exceptions, men and 
women whose time and affections are devoted to 
sports, amusements, and pleasure are perverts — 
mentally corrupt — and ought to be avoided and 
shunned by girls and boys of good minds who de- 
sire positions of usefulness far above any occupa- 
tion of games and sports. Love of rough, mascu- 
line games, sports, and plays, such as require phys- 
ical nerve and muscular force, do not tend to civ- 
ilize and elevate humanity. Very, very small per 
cent of the men and women in occupations and pur- 
suits of games, plays, and sports of any sort enter- 
tain any love either for the elements of morality 
or for men and women whose lives are devoted to 
the uplifting of humanity. Love of pleasure, as of 
society, social clubs, plays, games, and sports, has 
been cultivated, during recent years, to excess, and 
now is abnormal and damaging mankind by attract- 
ing and drawing millions of people away from use- 
ful pursuits, and thus absorbing and wasting their 
time and money necessary to promote their financial 
prosperity and welfare. 

Seek Not Pleasure, But to Be Useful. 

The highest ambition of many people is to live 
to eat, and to accumulate material things; another 
numerous class have in view nothing higher than 
to seek for enjoyment in the fleeting, carnal pleas- 
ures and sports of the times, very many of which 
are condemned, low, and sinful. All these are a 
vast multitude of people whose time and lives are 
wasted in the most selfish, unmeritorious, and sinful 
manner. 

All pure and noble lives have been predeter- 



NATURE AND MAN. 153 

mined (chosen and decided on) before they were 
lived; and the men and women who have become 
known and loved by their pure, spotless, and no- 
ble lives were meriting and commanding respect dur- 
ing their youthful years. The large majority of 
these pure, noble spirits were very poor, especially 
while young men and women, and had to struggle 
hard for living, clothing, books, and learning; but 
they were rich in love of personal honor, virtue, 
and morality, each of which they would have de- 
fended with their lives. They were most highly re- 
spectable, and entertained high respect for them- 
selves, and had the honor, the virtue, and the cour- 
age to say, "Hands off!" 

The most reasonable, sensible thing for every 
person to do, is to choose and determine firmly on 
the sort of life he or she will live — decide whether 
in the future it shall be good, indifferent, or bad. 
And it is, of course, presupposed that every person 
of good sense will choose to live a pure, good, and 
useful life. But the mere choice of a good and 
pure life is not at all sufficient to build life's char- 
acter on. Everyone who looks forward with reas- 
onable expectation of succeeding in living a moral 
and meritorious life must have a standard measure 
of what is to be called moral and meritorious; in 
short, he must have a standard of right, else he will 
be sure to fail. 

Having heartily accepted and adopted the moral 
laws of Nature — -the elements of morality — as the 
correct standard or measure of what shall be con- 
sidered right morally, then avoid any undue famil- 
iarity among people; and observe suitable, genteel 
formality, as there are polite formalities which ev- 
ery person, even the members of your own family, 
have a right to expect you to observe. Be natural, 
not affected, in company; don't think of yourself, 
as to how you look or appear; don't try to look 



i 5 4 NATURE AND MAN. 

pleasant; don't try to smile; don't try to put on 
a smiling face. Let your face be natural. It will 
be soon enough to smile or laugh when something 
laughable occurs. Foolish, silly people laugh at tri- 
fles. Don't be thinking about yourself, but think of 
other people and things, as of what your company 
say, and of the answer that will be most suitable. 
When one's thoughts are on himself or herself, a 
part, at least, of the power of the mind is drawn 
from intelligent considerations, and conversational 
power is weakened. 

Don't accept compliments freely. Be warned 
against compliments. Don't be so soft — so foolish — 
as to believe that they are sincere. Nineteen times 
out of twenty they come from a dishonest source, 
which women need to guard against. Nineteen out 
of twenty so-called compliments ought to be quickly 
rejected as insinuating or presumptive of weakness 
on the part of the female. About all directly com- 
plimentary or flattering remarks ought to be con- 
sidered unfavorable and promptly rejected by the 
lady as undesirable. Don't smile, but frown upon 
compliments. 

Presents ought to be politely refused. Most pres- 
ents offered to women by the opposite sex ought 
to be refused as tending to establish thoughts and 
feelings of personal obligation. Of course, offers of 
presents from relatives, or from one lady to another, 
are not included. Bad or immoral company must 
be avoided and carefully shunned. No person can 
be well respected who associates with immoral per- 
sons. The highest standard of right says, "Come 
out from among them, and be ye separate" from 
the wicked. We have but little reason to suppose 
any woman or man better than her or his associate. 
Ten thousand times better be alone than in impure 
company. If lonely, get a good, moral book that 
will improve your mind — something good and in- 



NATURE AND MAN. 155 

structive. Remember, whatsoever you learn men- 
tally will become, as it were, a part of you; so 
read only moral — not impure — books. 

Nearly all joking, especially if untimely, or in 
the least degree unchaste, or tending to lead to an 
immoral thought, is sure to weaken or destroy self- 
respect, if not frowned down. 

Either loud talk or loud laughter and loquacity 
or talkativeness are sure to reduce respect. Per- 
sonal familiarity and meddlesome, fondling hands, 
embracing arms, and caressing lips destroy both 
respect and good character. 

Moral Culture and Self-Respect. 

There are, as it were, two sides to the human 
mind. On one are the purely intellectual faculties; 
on the other, the moral faculties, embracing the af- 
fections, honor, virtue, etc. All the common branches 
of school and college education cultivate only the 
intellectual side or faculties of the mind; wherefore 
love of honor and desire to do right and to oppose 
wrong can be acquired and increased only by moral 
culture with such principles and teachings as are 
' found in the alphabet of morality. This heart cul- 
ture must be a part of the mental foundation of 
every ideal person. All the love of honor and vir- 
tue possessed by any individual can be traced to 
heart or moral culture. Heart or moral culture brings 
love of honor, virtue, and respectability; and these 
bring controlling moral love and self-respect. 

As the genuine respectability of a neighbor will 
largely govern your actions toward or affecting him; 
so, too, self-respect, founded on your own genuine 
respectability, will largely govern your actions af- 
fecting yourself. Respect will keep a person from 
telling a vulgar story or swearing in the presence 
of the respected; and self-respect, likewise, will keep 
a person from telling a vulgar story or swearing in 



156 NATURE AND MAN. 

the presence of himself or anybody else. Thus re- 
spectability and self-respect keep people from evil. 
No amount of education, leaving out moral culture, 
will make a man or woman any the more honorable, 
moral, or virtuous. Such education makes polite, 
cunning, foxy, and sharp, but dishonest, immoral, 
selfish, and heartless men and women, unworthy 
the respect, confidence, and love of anyone. 

Bad Company. 

Every person who wishes to be respectable must 
depart from and keep out of bad company. 

I well remember hearing a woman thirty years 
ago say: "I '11 never give up old friends for new" 
She had always had immoral, carnal-minded asso- 
ciates, whom she called friends. Her moral facul- 
ties were never cultivated; hence, in her estimation, 
morality is but little or no better than immorality. 
She has not forsaken her old friends, as "birds of a 
feather will flock together' ' ; and she will, no doubt, 
keep company with some of her so-called friends 
in Hades, and then discover that her "old friends" 
were, in fact, corrupt-minded enemies. 

Every immoral associate, though he be esteemed 
a friend, is, in fact, a positive enemy; and there is 
absolutely no hope of reform of any person who will 
not give up immoral friends (so called) for new and 
better ones. The highest and best standard of right 
says, "Come out from among them [the immoral], 
and be ye separate" You will not be much better 
than your associates. 

Must Judge Everybody. 
To be safe from corruption and fraud, you must 
judge everybody in whom you are concerned. I 
warn the reader against persons who quote, "Judge 
not, that ye be not judged," having noticed for 
years that the wicked entertain special regard for 
that scripture, but never quote the other scripture 



NATURE AND MAN. 157 

which says, "Judge not according to appearance, 
but judge righteous judgment." (John 7:24.) The 
reason why the immoral, dishonest, and wicked 
quote, "Judge not, that ye be not judged," is be- 
cause they do not like to be judged at all by their 
neighbors, and entertain no love for the sentiment 
expressed in the words, "but judge righteous judg- 
ment." "Judge not according to appearance" has 
reference to clothing; we are not to judge the charac- 
ter of a person's soul by the clothing worn. "Judge 
not, that ye be not judged," means that we are not 
to judge and condemn on mere and unfounded sus- 
picion, without any evidence, as this would be un- 
righteous judgment. We are also commanded in 
the New Testament thus : ' ' Come out from among 
them-j^the wicked], and be ye separate." No per- 
son can obey this excellent Biblical commandment 
without judging persons almost every hour. We 
must not give any person our confidence until we 
see him engaged in a sinful deed; but we ought to 
withhold it until he first merits our respect and mor- 
al confidence. There is no such thing as a pre- 
existing right to moral confidence. It is very dan- 
gerous to give confidence to any stranger. 

We may carefully judge a man by his words, as 
1 'from the abundance of the heart the tongue speak- 
eth." Words and remarks which express un-Chris- 
tian sentiments and principles condemn the speaker, 
whether be he Christian or not. And, as the wicked 
often use words expressing Christian sentiment for 
the purpose of deceiving, but never use words ex- 
pressing un-Christian sentiment to deceive, therefore 
one word expressing bad, immoral, or un-Christian 
sentiment must be taken as counting more against 
the character of a speaker than fifty good words 
count for him. This is true, because when the dis- 
honest and immoral seek to deceive, they guard 
against the use of words that would expose their 



1 58 NATURE AND MAN. 

bad character; but, being accustomed to saying 
things that are uncomplimentary to reformers and 
Christian workers and contrary to Christian prin- 
ciples, they occasionally expose, by some remark, 
their badness. A really good and moral person uses 
no words that express sentiments that do not agree 
and harmonize w T ith sound Scripture doctrine. While 
each word denoting or expressing Christian senti- 
ment counts for the speaker, yet words denoting or 
expressing anti- Christian or un s Christian sentiment 
count more rapidly against the speaker, as stated 
above. 

To be self-respecting, you must possess and pro- 
tect a good moral character, and defend it as boldly 
and bravely as you would your life. You must judge 
the character of every person who seeks to associate 
with you. Measure his words, deeds, and sentiments 
by the Higher Law standard of right; and, if these 
do not measure out right, association must be re- 
fused. And do not allow anyone to impose acquaint- 
ance, as an introduction at a party or on any oc- 
casion does not entitle any person to extend and 
continue the brief acquaintance. 

A TIME OF DANGEROUS ASSOCIATIONS. 

Owing to modern employments and business as- 
sociations, the immediate present and the near fu- 
ture are periods of great danger to women, on ac- 
count of the immorality of others. I am credibly 
informed that many, many thousands of the places 
where young women obtain employment in towns 
and cities are or become snares by which many 
women are entrapped, either directly or indirectly. 
These places of danger include the majority of places 
of modern employment for young women — factories, 
offices, stores, and all places where the amount for 
services is not enough to support and clothe women 
as they need. 

Low-minded, immoral men always seek to take 



NATURE AND MAN. 159 

any advantage possible and regard a woman's small 
wages and financial needs and distress as favorable 
to immorality. And the brute in good veneer has 
said to a girl, "My way, or you lose your job," 
and "You are under obligations." And I am cred- 
ibly informed that in answer to a young woman's 
reply, when applying for employment, that the small 
wages offered would not support her, she has been 
told that she could have a ' ' friend ' ' who would pay 
her "room-rent," and for a pair of "shoes" and a 
"new dress" occasionally; and so she could "live 
and dress well enough"; and that such a friend, 
"a nice fellow," would be introduced, if she accept- 
ed the employment. Ah, a "friend"! And young 
women who accept this sort of friendship (and many 
do) are soon either deserted or turned over to some 
other "nice fellow" after a few days or weeks of 
sin; and thus thousands are started en route to the 
slums of perdition. 

And now, young women, it is proven by the ex- 
perience of hundreds of thousands who have tested 
all the ways of immorality, that you better be moral 
servant-girls or women, and clothed in the cheapest 
cotton, than to be immoral and clothed in the finest 
woolens and most costly silks. The fine clothing 
may seem to afford comfort now; but be assured, 
and doubt it not, that at the end of a few years — 
very few — the women who choose morality and com- 
mon hard labor and cheap clothing will have seen 
many, many more days of peace of mind, comfort, 
and joy than the women who chose immorality and 
fine clothes. And the life of immoral young women 
is very, very short. 

And about "obligations." No obligations, no 
favors, and no sort of friendship gains any right 
over your morality, virtue, or honor; and though 
an employer (or any other person) were to give an 
employee (or any other woman) one-half of his es- 



160 NATURE AND MAN. 

tate and one-half his income, he would acquire no 
right to infringe or trespass upon her virtue, mor- 
ality, or honor. These are far above the value of 
any man's money and friendship, and under no cir- 
cumstances to be sacrificed to pay any sort of ob- 
ligation or debt. 

Remember, neither generous favors, nor money, 
nor presents, nor friendship, nor love, nor courtship 
and marriage agreements or contracts anticipating 
marriage — neither one nor all these acquire any 
privilege or right whatever to trespass upon your 
virtue and honor; and any suggestion that shows 
a desire to demoralize you, whether of employer, 
benefactor, friend, or lover, or anticipated husband, 
is an insult of the blackest dye, and ought to in- 
stantly cut and cancel love, friendship, respect, and 
all obligations based on favors. Honest, hearty, 
faithful, and diligent sendee pays all debts of grat- 
itude for favors from an employer; and as to your 
affections, let nothing, absolutely nothing, but mor- 
al merit and excellence command these. Superior 
or high order of intellect and excellence of physical 
manhood may command your admiration, but not 
your love. 

Reject and Frown upon Flattery. 
Flattery is another source of much danger to girls 
and young women. Think as we may of ourselves, 
few rise entirely above the possibility of flattery. 
Flattery is a common instrumentality of evil, and 
is being constantly offered with immoral design, and 
accepted as complimentary. Evil-minded men de- 
sign their flattering words to be taken for compli- 
ments, and when so accepted, have succeeded so 
far in their evil designs. The very youthful, and 
the shallow and ignorant, and the unsophisticated 
are the most common victims of flattery. Know- 
ing that there is in flattery a degree of freedom 
and personality which the genuine gentleman care- 



NATURE AND MAN. 161 

fully avoids, if flattery be offered to the more in- 
telligent and better informed, it is quickly and in- 
dignantly hurled back to him who attempts it. Nor 
do the more intelligent flatter themselves. r ^Silly, 
foolish people flatter themselves. The unsound judg- 
ment of a silly woman leads her to believe that she 
is good-looking or handsome or that she is bright, 
witty, or intellectual. Shallow, foolish thing — too 
superficial to consider and reflect intelligently that, 
even though she were handsome, there is no merit — 
no moral virtue and no morality — in the elements 
of personal shape, form, and beauty! Such women 
accept flattery, and are easy victims to the schemes 
and sins of the immoral. 

But the woman of better judgment is a more 
practical thinker, and perceives that there are scores 
of washer-women and poor servant-girls in almost 
any community that perhaps excel her in respect 
to figure (form) and beauty, and are her equals in 
intelligence. Thus good or superior intelligence arms 
a woman against the dishonest hypocrisy of flattery. 
Flattery and presents are common means used by im- 
moral men to aid them in deceiving women; where- 
fore flattery ought always to be rejected, and pres- 
ents must be quite generally refused. 

Be Not Deceived by Politeness. 
Be not deceived by any man's formal and gen- 
teel politeness. We have noticed for years that 
many men of awfully immoral and bad character 
are very polite to ladies on the streets and at social 
gatherings. Men absolutely destitute of morality 
and entirely unfit to associate with any decent wom- 
an often display as much or more formal polite- 
ness than the genuine gentleman. Be polite, it is 
desirable and costs but little; but be not deceived 
by outward politeness, but study the character of 
the invisible soul within the skull. Politeness be- 



162 NATURE AND MAN. 

longs to the purely intellectual, not the moral side 
of education, hence is no evidence of morality or 
honor. 

Be naturally easy, pleasant, and reasonably so- 
ciable. Be happy, if possible. Appreciate genuine 
moral kindness and gentility. But be not deceived 
by any sort of formal politeness. Openly and boldly 
express your disapproval and hatred of immorality, 
thus letting people know what manner of woman 
you are and intend to be. Make your moral senti- 
ments known, that your influence be good. Frown 
down evil. And do not fail to promptly, immedi- 
ately, and firmly disapprove of and frown down ev- 
ery conversation, story, jest, or joke that is at all 
immoral or unclean in itself, or because of its de- 
sign to bring unclean thoughts to the minds of 
its hearers. Be highly respectable, and have self- 
respect and defend it. Aim high morally, and strive 
to attain to the highest possible womanhood. Make 
■ ' Hands off ! " your unbreakable motto. Every man 
of sense will know when a girl or woman says ear- 
nestly, "Hands off!" that he is at the end of his 
rope of impropriety, and will stop, and will respect 
her. If this sensible rule were enforced by every 
young woman, as it ought to be, old maids and old 
bachelors would soon be scarce. Moral confidence 
would be established, and men would marry. Man's 
confidence in the firmness of a woman's virtue is 
quickly weakened when she allows him any improper 
personal freedom. The sensible rule, "Hands off!" 
must be firmly enforced during courtship. There 
are many, many courtships and marriage agreements 
canceled because too much personal freedom was 
allowed. 

Must Let People Know. 
Another matter of very great consequential im- 
portance to every moral young woman — a matter 



NATURE AND MAN. 163 

not to be neglected — is that she let every acquaint- 
ance know that she has fully and firmly decided on 
living a strictly moral and virtuous life. There are 
many thousands of young women who, though talk- 
ative, seldom or never express their convictions and 
sentiments on questions of morality, every one of 
whom would elevate herself by plainly, publicly, 
and frankly denouncing immorality and advocating 
morality as often as subjects of conversation make 
it proper to do so. No doubt many of the old 
maids of any modern period would have been mar- 
ried women if they had timely and heartily de- 
nounced immorality and sincerely advocated mor- 
ality publicly during their earlier years. 

If a young woman says little or nothing on these 
all-important subjects, who knows whether or not 
her mind is fully settled and determined, one way 
or another, on the subjects. And every man of 
sense knows that no woman is fit for a wife who 
has not fully decided in favor of strictest virtue. 
If a girl is sufficiently intelligent to choose and love 
morality, she also is capable of defending and ad- 
vocating morality; and it is her duty to do so, as 
by keeping silent she fails to exert the moral in- 
fluence for her own welfare and for others that she 
ought. 

The Satanic Tyrant, Pride. 
Pride is a mental corruption and a tyrant of pow- 
erful means of preventing young men and women 
enjoying life. The Bible teaches that Satan him- 
self is the father of pride. He was expelled from 
Heaven on account of his pride. It is said in Prov- 
erbs, that God hates a proud spirit. Pride is an 
awful mental tyrant that needs to be feared and 
fought by every young man and woman who really 
wishes to be successful in life. Even the great Apos- 
tle Paul himself was afraid of pride. Pride, if not 



164 NATURE AND MAN. 

timely and carefully restrained, will soon subdue, 
dethrone, and enslave reason and become the gov- 
erning power over the mind. Millions of people are 
the slaves of the Satanic tyrant Pride; their better 
reason having lost control, they are governed in 
nearly all their purchases — in buying — and in most 
things that they do, by pride. It makes millions 
of people miserably unhappy, because they are fin- 
ancially unable to gratify their pride, and leads 
millions into immoral and sinful lives and down to 
Hades. 

When a lady does not feel as comfortableTand 
happy in a neatly made and nicely fitting calico 
dress as when clothed in more expensive^goods, 
reason has lost control, and she is being governed 
and made unhappy by pride. She ought to know 
that it is the mind — the invisible spirit being with- 
in — that by well-chosen and expressive words makes 
itself felt mentally and is the greater source of fascin- 
ating power. Let every lady and gentleman know, 
too, that good and superior qualities of head and 
heart attract more notice and more favorable atten- 
tion in cheap than in costly dresses. 

Ah! young woman, be governed in all things by 
your better judgment, remembering that every man 
of good sense knows that all intelligence, honor, vir- 
tue, and love belong to the mind, and not to silks, 
satins, and fine clothing. Remember and forget 
not the truth: Haughty pride is one of the most 
damaging mental corruptions that affects, demor- 
alizes, and torments perverted humanity. 



NATURE AND MAN. 165 

LOVE— WONDERFUL, MARVELOUS LOVE. 



Love When Normal the Best Thing in the 
World; When Abnormal, the Worst. 
How Love and Hatred 
Co-operate. 



Love and Christianity. 

The chemist can analyze water by decomposing 
it into its elements of oxygen and hydrogen; but 
can go no further. We have compound feelings; 
but love and hatred are at their last analysis. These 
the chemist can not analyze. 

Love and hatred are the two most powerfully 
inciting mental passions, the sentiments of which 
largely govern mankind, both for weal and for woe. 
Love is a passion: and a passion is a mental feel- 
ing or emotion by which the mind is swayed or 
affected; a deep or strong disposition or working 
of the mind; a strong attachment by that which 
commands admiration of human affections. A sen- 
timent is a particular disposition of the mind as 
regards some person or thing, and may be favorable 
or unfavorable. 

Normal love is an affection of the mind excited 
by merit and worth of any kind; by beauty and 
pleasing qualities; by mercy, kindness, benevolence, 
charity; and by such qualities as render social in- 
tercourse most agreeable. A man's fancy, likes, es- 
teem, friendship, and admiration — all are tributa- 
ries to his love. Any one of these, increased and 
intensified, may develop a spark of love, which, if 
fed and fanned by continued manifestations of what- 
ever is approved by his mind, may become a burn- 
ing, ceaseless flame of love. 

There is love of different kinds and quality. 



166 NATURE AND MAN. 

Love ranges in its nature from the best thing in the 
world down to the worst thing in the world. 
She Was Surprised. 

A woman one day said: "Why I never have 
supposed that there is more than one sort of love." 
And she was surprised when I informed her that 
the difference in the quality of love is just equal 
the difference between virtue and vice, or honesty 
and dishonesty. In other words, the differences in 
the quality of love is fully equal the difference be- 
tween a fresh, newly laid hen's egg and one that 
is old and thoroughly rotten. 

Love, in the case of consanguinity (blood-rela- 
tionship), is natural, and not based on worth, mer- 
it, or excellence. Parents love their children, even 
though the latter be void of merit. This kind of 
love is instinctive. The infant is loved before it 
is old enough to display any sort of merit. Such 
love is as strong among domestic and wild animals 
as in human beings. 

Moral love is based on high estimation of moral 
principles. Christian love includes moral love, Chris- 
tian belief and faith, God and humanity; and is 
the best thing in the world. Immoral love, which 
is of things that are wrong and degrade humanity, 
is the worst thing in the world. It opposes the 
elements of morality. Love, based on moral prin- 
ciples, is uncompromising with wrong and never 
willing to surrender the object of love, nor to li- 
cense that which is wrong morally. Such love is 
refined, uplifting, ideal. 

Love begets eager desire for possession, as of 
things, and for association and companionship, and 
to benefit persons whom we love; and inspires ear- 
nest, determined desire to promote the welfare and 
to secure the success of any cause w T hich one's mind 
approves as right. The highest of authority repre- 



NATURE AND MAN. 167 

, sents love as being the greatest of all graces (I. Cor. 
13:13; I. Tim. 1:5). It means moral love. Love 
determines what a man's character is — whether it 
be good or bad. No man of good sense is neutral 
on questions of morality and immorality; nor as 
to Christianity. Every sane man is for or against, 
he either loves or hates; and a governing prepond- 
erance of love for right, honor, morality, virtue, etc., 
gives him a good character, but a preponderance 
of love for wrong gives him a bad character. 

Love, to be moral, must itself be governed by 
an underlying foundation-love of all the elements 
of morality. When the moral faculties of reason 
have not been cultivated and moral capacity de- 
veloped, reason often yields to the dictates of blind 
passion, to love based on error, misinformation, and 
indifference or ignorance of the true character of 
the person or thing loved. Such love causes hasty 
friendship and much sorrow. 

Pure, uncorrupted love is a product of one's 
normal, unperverted moral faculties; and, as all 
mankind is governed mainly by love, therefore the 
moral faculties are the far more important of all 
one's numerous mental faculties. An important 
function or work of moral love is to keep one's mind 
pure by rejecting and excluding all thoughts not in 
accord with the laws of morality. Love itself of 
moral principles and people, and of their ways and 
deeds, is filtered and purified by a deeper and under- 
lying foundation-love of the sacred elements of mor- 
ality. Moral, uncorrupted love restrains pure minds 
from entertaining unclean, corrupting thoughts and 
from immoral deeds. 

Moral Standards of Purity and Justice. 

On account of mental corruption and perver- 
sion, no person can safely trust his own judgment 
to fix for himself the standard measures of what 



1 68 NATURE AND MAN. 

he shall consider sufficient purity and moral justice 
as between man and man. Everyone — all civilized 
mankind — needs to be guided by the same stand- 
ards or measures of mental purity and moral right 
and justice. The elements of morality which have 
been tried and tested in many millions of cases are 
the ever-correct, pure, and just standards of men- 
tal purity and righteousness between man and man 
for all humanity. 

Moral love is based upon and governed by the 
elements of morality. All moral men and women 
accept the elements of morality — all moral^ princi- 
ples — as their just and correct standards of moral 
purity, right, and justice. One or another of the 
elements of morality is a correct standard or meas- 
ure of any of the many affairs and activities, any 
of the thoughts and deeds, of mankind. In fact, 
the alphabet of morality (the elements of morality) 
are the true and practical Christian's standards, as 
any religion at all worth having must have moral- 
ity for its underlying foundation. Anyone whose 
mind is purified by genuine love of the elements of 
morality and inspired by tin compromising hatred of 
the elements of immorality has but a reasonable 
step to take to become a model Christian. 

Immoral love is any such love as is not based 
upon but dislikes moral laws (the elements of mor- 
ality), and is based upon and governed by the ele- 
ments of immorality. All immoral men and women 
accept the elements of immorality (immoral princi- 
ples) as their standards of mental purity, and con- 
sider themselves good enough when they measure 
up to such low and corrupt standards. It is mental 
corruption and perversion of one's moral faculties 
that makes the vast difference between moral and 
immoral love, and between morality and immoral- 
ity. Any mental dislike or disapproval of any moral 
principle or law — as any dislike of morality or of 



NATURE AND MAN. 169 

any one of its elements — is mental corruption; and 
all minds are corrupted that entertain any such dis- 
like. And, also, any sympathy or friendship for 
immorality or for any one of its elements is mental 
corruption; and all minds that entertain any such 
sympathy are corrupted. 

As love is a product of the moral faculties of 
every mind, it may be likened to the most valuable 
but tender plant, that must be carefully and thor- 
oughly cultivated to make it grow and develop its 
fruits. So, too, love must be stimulated and de- 
veloped by careful, systematic, and thorough culti- 
vation, as I have said, to develop and mature its 
best fruits. Moral cultivation fortifies love against 
corruption. Love is naturally generous, even to ex- 
cess, and needs to be modified and regulated by 
sound reason, to restrain it from extravagance and 
self-sacrifice. 

When Selfishness Exceeds Love 
of Humanity. 
But everyone's strongest, most passionate, most 
influencing and controlling love ought to be his or 
her love of humanity. When selfishness (love of 
one's self) exceeds his love of humanity, it is cor- 
rupted and immoral. Anyone whose love is based 
upon morality, and filtered, cleansed, and purified 
by sincere love of its principles, cheerfully subordi- 
nates the freedom of his personal will to moral laws, 
because he knows that every moral law promotes 
human welfare. Therefore anyone who opposes any 
moral law because it interferes with the freedom of 
his own will and ways is putting a higher valuation 
upon unrestrained freedom of his will — upon his de- 
sire to do as pleases himself — than he puts upon 
the welfare of humanity. Any such people are men- 
tally corrupt and immoral. Their moral faculties 
are perverted, and their affections and their love 



i7o NATURE AND MAN. 

corrupt. Any thought or sentiment that tends to 
degrade mind is mental corruption, and will not 
fail to corrupt to some degree the moral faculties, 
affections, and love of anyone who entertains any 
such thought or sentiment. Moral love and sym- 
pathy always is on the side of morality; but im- 
moral love and sympathy usually is on the side of 
immorality. Haughty pride is an obnoxious and 
powerful mental conniption. Pride corrupts one's 
moral faculties and perverts love of humanity to 
love of personal show, fashions, and styles, and is 
antagonistic to the alphabet of morality and un- 
christian . (See ' ' Mental Corruption . ' ' ) 

Love of Mental Qualities. 

Moral love, and especially Christian love, based 
on and supported by such high authority as the 
Bible, is stronger, more steadfast, more patient, and 
more enduring than love not based on and sup- 
ported by a high standard of moral authority. To 
love ourselves somewhat, or within bounds, is neces- 
sary, and has been said to be the measure of our 
love for our neighbors. If this is the true measure, 
it would seem that some people think very little of 
themselves! Is it possible that the drunkard loves 
himself ? 

Love, kindled by and based on material form 
and superficial beauty, is fickle, unsteadfast, unre- 
liable (changeable as the winds), and liable to van- 
ish any hour. Love, based on the good qualities 
of mind, becomes deep-rooted and grows stronger 
from year to year, on and on, during life, and will, 
in all probability, continue to increase and grow in 
eternity — everlasting . 

But love based on physical forms and super- 
ficial, outward beauty, even though supported for 
a time by animal passions, is poorly rooted and, 
likebeauty, only "skin-deep " and liable to be blown 



NATURB AND MAN. 171 

away by the first gale. A person beautiful in form 
and surface may attract, fascinate, and kindle in 
the mind of the captivated a flame of love (or ad- 
miration) of material beauty; but when the cap- 
tivated soul discovers that the fascinating qualities 
of the handsome person are all material and only 
" skin-deep," and that the beauty possesses no fas- 
cinating mental qualities, love weakens and may 
soon take wings and be off. While it is true that 
material beauty commands admiration, it alone can 
not control the respect and love of anyone. Can 
senseless matter command respect ? 

We can not estimate correctly the character and 
moral worth of people by the houses in which they 
live, whether we refer to those of brick and mor- 
tar or those of flesh and blood. A pretty face may 
belong to an inferior mind. While many, many 
thousands of unclean, immoral, wicked, and adul- 
terous men and women live in attractive, handsome, 
and fascinating houses of flesh and blood, a vast 
number of the purest, brightest, noblest, most de- 
serving, and, in fact, most lovable minds of men 
and women live in plain, unattractive, and even 
homely houses of flesh and blood. 

But the beauty of superior qualities of mind 
(oh, how beautiful!) commands both admiration and 
respect and deepest-rooted, enduring love — love of 
the best class of people; love that will last and 
grow broader, wider, deeper, and higher until death, 
and then wait inside the gates of Heaven for the 
coming of loved ones and the glorious and everlast- 
ing reunion. This inexpressibly glorious reunion, 
sure to be one of the future joyous events of | life 
in Heaven, is sufficiently assured by the teachings 
of Scripture. 

But how^different is thatlove (mere admiration) 
based on physical or material qualities — on flesh and 
blood! Such love may be likened to a sickly tree 



i 7 2 NATURE AND MAN. 

planted in scanty dirt on a barren, fruitless ledge 
of rocks, vainly struggling for root-hold and liable 
to be blown away by the first storm. 

Notice the great advantage the fascinating qual- 
ities of the mind have over qualities of material, 
that fascinate for a short time, then fade and dis- 
appear. The fascinating qualities of the mind im- 
prove and grow more powerful; while those of ma- 
terial — of flesh and form — fade and wrinkle and 
soon lose the power once possessed. Is flesh and 
blood worth any more than ten cents a pound? 

Love is lasting. No amount of bodily suffering 
or disease ever weakens love. The infirmities of 
old age, which sometimes impair and dim other fac- 
ulties, seem to have no power over the affections, 
which, instead of weakening, grow stronger as the 
body decays. O wonderful, wonderful love! 

Love Is One's Worst Enemy or 
Best Friend. 

Love either is a man's worst enemy or his best 
friend; as, when immoral, love is his worst enemy, 
but, when moral, love is his best friend. 

Immoral love is corrupt and leads one into all 
sorts of wrong, both in thoughts and deeds; it be- 
gets unclean, evil thoughts; and such thoughts are 
the seeds of immoral conduct, deeds, and works. 
Thoughts are of the mind, and build character and 
precede action. Immoral thoughts are the forerun- 
ners of wrong deeds. Immoral deeds are preceded 
by thoughts that are unclean and wrong. Evil 
thoughts are always entertained in the mind before 
premeditated action; and therefore are, as it were, 
the seeds of deeds. This being true, it is clearly 
a sin to harbor any wrong, dishonest, unclean, im- 
moral thought any longer than the necessary time to 
stop it, expel it, drive or kick it out. These seeds 
of conduct are in harmony with a man's love and, 



NATURE AND MAN. 173 

in fact, fruits of his love. Every vegetable-producing 
seed has its origin in the mother plant; and so, 
too, the seeds of deeds have their origin in immoral 
minds. The immoral man's love willingly enter- 
tains unclean and wicked thoughts ; bids them come 
and gives them social greeting and pleasing enter- 
tainment. The proof that he does so love whatever 
is wrong, unclean, vulgar, profane, degrading, and 
hateful to any moral or Christian man is in his love 
of listening to and of telling unclean stories, and 
in his dishonesty, untruthfulness, vice, debauchery, 
etc. And thus a man's love, if it be immoral, leads 
him to do whatever is wrong; as to deceive, cheat, 
lie, steal, and to patronize the saloons — "sample- 
rooms" — and houses or places of sneaking abomi- 
nation. His thoughts, conduct, deeds, and influ- 
ence are enough to satisfy any fair-minded person 
that immoral love is a man's worst enemy. 

Moral love is exactly the opposite of immoral 
love, and keeps a man from wrong, and leads him 
to do whatever is right, honest, moral, virtuous, 
and to love all such associations, words, conversa- 
tion, conduct, deeds, and works as increase the wel- 
fare and happiness of mankind. Wherefore pure, 
genuine moral love is a man's best friend. 

Love and Hatred Co-operate. 
The moral strength and force of love is greatly 
increased by a clear and extensive knowledge of the 
bad, immoral, corrupting, degrading, disgracing, and 
tormenting influences of the many sorts and ways 
of immorality. Extensive information and knowl- 
edge of the many hateful consequences of wrong in- 
crease moral dislike and hatred of wrong; and there 
is but little or no love of right without hatred of 
wrong. Wherefore hatred of wrong makes right 
doubly strong. It is said in Proverbs, that God 
"hates" a proud spirit. Because of this nature of 



174 NATURE AND MAN. 

mind and love, it is especially necessary, and vastly 
the most important work of every parent of young 
children, to direct and regulate this passion (love), 
directing it to proper channels and objects, and to 
moderate and confine it within proper bounds. 

Parents ought to be glad to find this principle 
in the human mind, and not banish, but direct and 
encourage it; not depress, but exalt it; not abate, 
but promote it. Love, rightly guided, will lead to 
all goodness and no evil, if it be based on morality. 
Love is conducted by morality to proper objects, and 
animated with the noblest aspirations, and trained 
up for usefulness in the world, where it is much 
needed. 

Hatred, to be right, must not be selfish, and 
must be restricted to opposition to whatever is not 
right — resistance to wrong, immorality, vice, and 
sin. Hatred, directed against that which tends to 
corrupt, demoralize, and degrade humanity, is right 
and moral. But any hatred that is largely selfish 
and directed against mankind is wrong, immoral, 
wicked, and sinful. 

Hatred of wrong, regulated and governed by 
right, is righteous, and ought to be cultivated and 
developed, along with love of right, in the head 
and heart of every child, from the time when it 
knows the meaning of a few little words. But rea- 
son and right must govern and direct the works of 
hatred; as, when either love or hatred is allowed to 
become the master of one's better judgment, there 
is great danger that wrong will be done. Reason 
and right must keep the mastery of one's thoughts 
and feelings. Hatred is sentiment engendered in 
the mind against that which opposes the object of 
one's love, whether the love be moral or immoral. 
Both hatred and love are the active, energetic, in- 
citing, and inspiring mental fruits of a man's com- 
prehension of right and wrong, of morality and im- 



NATURE AND MAN. 175 

morality, of virtue and vice, of Christianity and 
infidelity, and increase in degree and intensity (for 
right or for wrong), love and hatred keeping in ac- 
cord and harmony with the character of his learn- 
ing: the greater his ignorance of the beauties and 
beneficence of right, the more intense his love of 
wrong; and the clearer his comprehension of right, 
the greater will be his love of right and his hatred 
of wrong. Hence, the higher and nobler one's con- 
ception of God, the more he will hate the Devil and 
immorality. 

Love is the principal — the stronger and control- 
ling and governing — passion of the human mind. 

But, in the case of active, determined resistance 
to the object of one's affections, love and hatred 
become, as it were, active, energetic co-partners, 
each passion working to secure the defeat of op- 
position to the object of love, and support one 
another. 

These are the two most excellent and, when 
based on right conceptions of right, the most charm- 
ing faculties of mankind — love, in its normal state, 
the most powerful of all forces to induce men and 
women to do right; and hatred the ready second 
and defender of whatever cause or thing loved. 

An Intelligent and Expressive Answer. 

Never will I forget the intelligent, expressive, 
significant, and beautiful sentiment expressed in the 
answer a young lady at Webster City, Iowa, gave 
when asked whether or not she had ever been in 
love. She said: "Yes, always in love." Nor will 
I forget what I heard a young woman say at Spring- 
field, Mo. She was in conversation with a young 
man, who propounded a question as to whether 
she was capable of ardent love, when she replied 
promptly, and with excellent significance: "Yes, 
sir, I can love, and I can hate, too." While the 



i 7 6 NATURE AND MAN. 

answer of the Iowa girl was beautiful, yet the an- 
swer of the Missouri girl was far superior, because 
in it she told how she would treat immorality. 

But, as stated, both love and hatred will be 
right, moral, and commendable; or wrong, immoral, 
and reprehensible. In any special case, the char- 
acter of each will be the same. 

Comprehend, every truly moral man's love is 
moral, and his hatred, too, is equally moral; while 
every immoral man's love is immoral, and his ha- 
tred, too, is equally immoral. Wherefore every 
man's love and hatred co-operate in defense of what 
he loves, whether his love be moral or immoral. 

Of these wonderful faculties and passions of the 
human mind, moral love is kind, generous, forgiving, 
and non-combative; while hatred is stern, soldier- 
like, and combative, and, when needed, comes quick- 
ly to the defense of love, and says to him who dares 
to trespass upon that which is loved, "Stop, sir; love 
is right, and I 'm here to defend it." 

Behold the wonderful, marvelous wisdom of the 
Creator in endowing man with these two remark- 
able passions, which, though as different as day and 
night, yet, when aroused, work in perfect harmony 
for the accomplishment of the same results. Thus 
moral love stimulates and incites action by admira- 
tion of right and works for morality; while moral 
hatred, stimulated by dislike of wrong and immor- 
ality, works against wrong and immorality — which 
is working indirectly for right and morality. And 
thus love and hatred, in one mind, are co-workers 
for right; or, in the case of immoral love, are co- 
workers for wrong. Both these passions are good 
when not degraded, demoralized, and perverted by 
a preponderance of immoral learning, wrong com- 
prehension, and evil influences. They are endow- 
ments designed to better enable us to deal with 



NATURE AND MAN. 177 

right and wrong: love to stimulate, encourage, and 
promote right; hatred to engender and stimulate 
dislike and active resistance to wrong — co-workers 
for the welfare and betterment of mankind. 

Moral hatred, the co-partner of moral love, is 
no less ardent and determined than immoral love, 
but is tempered and regulated by authorized meas- 
ures of right, and so is directed not against the in- 
dividual, but against his evil influence and works; 
while immoral hatred is neither governed nor re- 
strained by any authorized measure of right, and 
is spiteful and malicious and directed against moral 
and Christian men, whom, in its un-Christian, ma- 
licious, wicked, and sinful wrath, it often murders. 

Importance of Moral Education. 

As a man's love is based on his measurement, 
comprehension, appreciation, and estimate of right, 
hence those things which a man esteems highly, 
whether they be good or bad, command his love 
and determine his character. A very low estimate, 
small esteem, and little appreciation of right never 
fail to beget immoral love and give the unfortunate 
individual a bad, positively bad character. So, in 
case a man uses no authorized standard or meas- 
ure of right, his love will be based on his unauthor- 
ized, self -constituted, and self-sufficient authority, 
and will be immoral and impart bad character in 
ninety-nine cases out of one hundred. 

Love and hatred, as of conscience, are both fac- 
ulties of the mind, subject to influences of learning, 
and sure to be immoral whenever and wherever an 
individual's moral education is defective or not suf- 
ficient to overcome the immoral influences to which 
the person is subjected. Both love and hatred, 
being based on such comprehension and estimation 
of rights as one's moral learning has given, wheth- 
er right or wrong, depend on the character of the 



1 78 NATURE AND MAN. 

learning on which they are based. Therefore learn- 
ing, to produce moral character, must be largely and 
specifically moral, else love and hatred will be im- 
moral. Love of anything not right is perverted 
love, and is wrong, wicked, and sinful, but as strong 
as moral love. 

Beware! Any sentiment or mental feeling, love 
or hatred, out of accord and harmony with any one 
of the elements or principles of morality is mental 
corruption or the work of mental corruption. 

And now, while writing upon the subject of love, 
is an opportune time for the author to say, in truth, 
that this book is a work of the author's love. Never 
has he expected pay for more than a very small 
part of the time and mental and physical labor 
which it has cost. More than this he need not say, 
as surely his motive is obvious in every page of 
this book. 

COURTSHIP WITH A VIEW TO 
MATRIMONY. 



Is the Favorable Opportunity to Lay 
Foundation for Future Welfare. 
How a Girl Conquered a Man's 
Hand and Heart. 



How to Get Married and Stay Married. 

Courtship is a proper and wise thing, if properly 
conducted with a view to marriage, but is a gross 
imposition upon any woman when she is justified 
In supposing that marriage is contemplated by the 
man when it is not. 

Courtship ought to be conducted in daytime, 
mostly, and not after the older folks have gone to 
bed. If it is a matter of greater importance than 
ordinary business, give it daylight attention and 
consideration. If a man needs a horse and really 



NATURE AND MAN. 179 

intends to buy, he will take time to go and see a 
horse in daylight. The object in courtship ought 
to be about the same, in its nature, as a man's 
object when he goes to see a horse. In either case, 
the object is to study and decide on qualities and 
value. The horse-buyer would like to see the horse 
walk, pull, and w r ork; and a courter ought to see 
the ease, grace, and dexterity of the woman when 
engaged doing her daily work. If a bright woman 
is going to buy a new dress, she will not select the 
material by artificial light, as one can not see as 
by daylight the colorings and the quality of goods. 
Is the choosing of a wife or a husband of less im- 
portance than the buying of a horse or the choice 
of material for a new dress ? 

There are many thousands of boys and men who 
do not intend to marry the young girls and women 
whom they seem to court and are most attent- 
ive to the night courtships; thousands who pretty 
nearly always have one or two girls or women 
on hand for night courtships — which of all ' 'ships" 
are the most dangerous that girls and women ever 
enter. They are the sort of ships that are the more 
often wrecked, along with the moral character of 
their female occupants. 

Where is there a man who would be willing to 
let his wife sit up along with a man, chatting and 
perhaps playing cards or other games for amuse- 
ment, for several hours after himself and all others 
in the home were in bed and asleep? No, there is 
not one such man of sound mind. Why? Why? 
Is it the man, or the wife, who now is not to be 
trusted ? 

And, too, is after marriage not soon enough to 
be alone with a man at late hours of night? The 
most substantial foundations for moral confidence 
in the chastity of husbands and wives can be laid 
during courtship, It is true that the foundations 



180 NATURE AND MAN. 

on which future distrust and jealousy have been 
built were laid, in many thousands of cases, during 
courtship, by failing to frown upon and resent such 
familiarity and freedom as is plainly condemned in 
this book under the heading, "The Line of Propri- 
ety, * Hands Off !' " Allowing and smiling upon im- 
proper freedom during courtship violates the men- 
tal laws which support moral confidence, and thus 
weakens love, begets and incites immoral passions, 
and undermines and destroys moral respect and 
confidence. 

During courtship is the especially favorable time 
and opportunity to build mental foundations for 
moral confidence as solid as iron and usually as en- 
during as life — foundations which will support and 
keep the moral confidence of the future husband and 
wife, and be powerful shields and safeguards against 
future jealousy and desire for divorce and sepa- 
ration. During many if not all courtships, young 
women who possess needful protective knowledge 
of moral propriety (of right and wrong deportment) 
are likely to have opportunities when they ought 
to frown and quickly disapprove of improprieties 
seen in immodest conduct, words, and suggestions. 

Young women ought to be naturally at ease, 
pleasant, reasonably sociable, and happy; ought to 
appreciate genuine moral kindness and gentility, but 
be not deceived by any sort of formal politeness. 
They ought to frown — yea, scowl — upon flattery. 
Flattery and presents are common means used by 
immoral men to aid them in deceiving women. Flat- 
tery should always be rejected, and presents quite 
generally refused. And it is very important that 
she promptly and firmly disapprove of and frown 
down every conversation, story, jest, or joke that 
is at all immoral or unclean in itself or because of 
its author's design to bring unclean thoughts to the 
minds of its hearers. Unclean conversation, words, 



NATURE AND MAN. 181 

jests, and jokes come from" impure, coarse and vul- 
gar minds and are evidence of bad character. If a 
woman smiles or laughs at immodesty, which is one 
of the elements of bad character, she is building a 
mental foundation of distrust and very likely is 
near a person of her affinity; but marriage would 
be followed by distrust. Every decent woman ought 
to boldly and often express her disapproval and ha- 
tred of immorality, thus letting people know what 
sort of woman she is and intends to be. ffl 

If a girl during courtship, and at other times, 
says little or nothing on these all-important sub- 
jects, who knows whether or not her mind is fully 
determined, one way or another, on subjects per- 
taining to morality ? And every man of sense knows 
that no woman is fit for a wife who has not fully 
decided in favor of strict virtue and honor. If a 
young woman is sufficiently intelligent to choose 
and love morality, as against vice, she is also capa- 
ble of defending and advocating morality; and it 
is her duty to do so, as by keeping silent on such 
all-important subjects she fails to exert the moral 
influence necessary for her own protection and for 
the welfare of her associates. 

About Affinity, What It Is. 

Many people have deceived themselves about 
the nature of affinity by entertaining vague and 
erroneous ideas about people of imaginary natures, 
a sort of angels, who, when mated, will never dis- 
agree! But such affinities are never found. Affin- 
ity is mutual attraction, agreement, and liking. 

There is affinity of every species for its own kind. 
The different species of beasts, birds, insects, rep- 
tiles, etc., manifest this mutual attraction, agree- 
ment, and liking, each for its own species. And 
affinity of much the same nature is strong between 
the human species. 



1 82 NATURE AND MAN. 

But the nearer alike in age, education, and es- 
pecially in moral principles and moral sentiment, the 
stronger is the affinity of any two persons. As affin- 
ity is agreement of two, how can there be much 
affinity between persons who disagree widely on 
questions of religion and moral principles? There 
is absolutely no affinity between virtue and vice. 
No affinity between goodness and badness. No af- 
finity between purity and impurity. 

Finally, there is absolutely no sufficient reason 
to doubt that there have been millions of court- 
ships and marriage agreements canceled because too 
much personal freedom was allowed during court- 
ship. There is no equal period in life so favorable 
for building and establishing moral confidence as 
that during courtship. It surely is the especially 
favorable opportunity. During this period especial- 
ly, every frown upon immodesty and every positive 
word against immorality, every emphatic word and 
declaration favoring morality, womanly virtues and 
chastity, increase moral confidence, and are stored 
away in the mind of a moral man as mental keep- 
sakes, and not soon nor easily forgotten. In the 
case moral confidence be steadily increased, as it 
ought, from the beginning to the end of a court- 
ship of reasonable length — say a few months, — it 
will be strong, and jealousy is not likely to come 
after marriage, without sufficient provocation. The 
methods that increase or decrease confidence before 
marriage will have like effect on the minds of hus- 
bands and wives after marriage, and ought to be 
continued. 

Moral Confidence and Character. 

The question as to whom one ought to or not 
to give his or her confidence is a consideration of 
vast importance, and especially in courtship. Hun- 
dreds of thousands of people have been misled and 
deceived by the industry of corrupt people. Indus- 



NATURE AND MAN. 183 

try is no indication or evidence of good character. 
Many people — both men and women — of great en- 
ergy and industry are extremely corrupt and im- 
moral, and entirely unworthy of moral confidence. 
I now have in mind several married women, neat 
housekeepers and industrious and energetic work- 
ers, who are sneaking home-wreckers; and exactly 
the same statement is true of men. 

Give No Man or Woman Confidence. 

The giving of confidence — of moral confidence : — 
is not an indication of personal virtue, but of stu- 
pidity or gross ignorance of the nature of perverted 
human nature. More often moral confidence is based 
upon one's ignorance of the weakness of any moral 
character that is not based upon earnest, sincere 
love of every element of morality and fortified by 
stimulating hatred of all the elements of immorality. 
And, as there are millions of people entirely un- 
worthy of either respect or confidence, therefore no 
person has any right to one's confidence before he 
or she has earned it, Comprehend, confidence is 
not to be given, but acquired — earned by pure words, 
conduct, and deeds. 

It is because of their little or no love of moral- 
ity and no hatred of immorality that many thous- 
ands of people consider virtue and their marriage 
obligations of but very small importance, and dis- 
regard and criminally violate their marriage vows. 
And, in consequence of these facts, men who know 
of the common weakness of everyone's character 
that is not purified and fortified by love of virtue 
and hatred of vice fear to marry, lest they too 
become entrapped. 

Conquered His Hand and Heart. 
I know of a circumstance that well illustrates 
the prevailing conditions and the private sentiment 
(the mental feeling) of many men upon the subject 



1 84 NATURE AND MAN. 

of matrimony. A well-to-do man, who had become 
familiar with the extreme weakness of unfortified 
characters, w r as having a buggy-ride in company 
with a young woman — his first ride with her. It 
was in the beautiful springtime of June, when in 
the country there is developing so much of new 
life to inspire hope and cheer; and they were in the 
country, driving in a public road which was agree- 
ably shaded by large and beautiful green-topped 
trees. The bright young woman, who was cheer 
fully sharing with the man the pleasure of the drive, 
had with her her head and heart (love), while he, 
almost unconscious that he possessed a head and 
heart, still knew that he had twx> arms; and, as 
but one of these was needed to drive the faithful 
team and, supposedly, to make the other arm com- 
fortable, he lifted it from his side and placed it 
along on the back of the buggy-seat, just back of 
the young woman. And now a big surprise. She 
shoved herself toward her end of the seat and said 
firmly: "Thank you, sir; I am able to sit up alone 
and need no arm support." He quickly placed 
his offending arm again by his side and apologized. 
But keenly did he feel the rebuke. He had taken 
other girls buggy-riding, some of whom seemed really 
to enjoy considerable "arm support" and, he suspect- 
ed, would not object to two arms. He would flirt 
with them and play courtship, but never, never sin- 
cerely thought of marrying any one of them. He 
felt somewhat vexed, and one of the speedy thoughts 
that flashed through his mind was that he would 
not again invite her company. 

But within a few minutes he had commenced 
analyzing or trying to analyze the mind of this 
young woman who had the spirit, the nerve, and 
the courage thus to protect herself against an impro- 
priety and any possible wrong design of the strong 
man in whose company she was. And a few min- 



NATURE AND MAN, 185 

utes later he had begun to analyze his own mind, 
and found that he had disapproved the freedom 
other girls had allowed and even encouraged by 
smiles and laugh, and that not one had said or done 
anything tending to earn and entitle her to his 
confidence. 

Ere long his heart — his affections — began warm- 
ing up for this young girl, whose love of virtue and 
hatred of vice had protected herself and conquered 
him. He sometimes, but not often, had thought 
that he w^ould be pleased to have a wife — one in 
whom he could place unlimited confidence. But, in 
view T of his correct and right idea, that moral con- 
fidence must be earned, and not given to any wom- 
an, the time had come when he entertained but 
very little hope that any woman ever would earn 
and become entitled to his confidence and love. 

But, at last, this young girl had given him some- 
thing to think about; and, after a long drive, be- 
fore the team pulled up in front of her home, he 
had accomplished more analytical thinking than be- 
fore in months. 

But there was still another surprise awaiting 
him. He had decided that he would be pleased 
to extend his acquaintance and knowledge of this 
young woman, who was dressed in a cheap but 
pretty-figured and neatly fitting calico dress, which 
her own hands had cut, fitted, and made. So, be- 
fore saying good-night, he asked for the pleasure of 
her company at her home one of the evenings of 
the next week; and, after brief consideration, she 
replied that she would be pleased to receive him 
Wednesday at seven thirty p. m., but not to be 
entertained later than until nine thirty; and added, 
in the way of volunteered and timely information, 
that she heartily disapproved of young women en- 
tertaining gentlemen company later than half past 
nine or ten o'clock p. m. 



1 86 NATURE AND MAN. 

It had been for him an eventful day. He had 
found a poor girl in her calico gown, who had the 
head and heart to rebuke him for an act which he 
now admits was quite improper; and she the first 
and only young woman who ever had, to any 
considerable extent, proven herself worthy of J his 
confidence. However, before Wednesday evening, 
he had related to one of his intimate friends his 
experience on that eventful day, and was told of 
her having rebuked several young men for rudeness 
in catching hold of her, and informing them that 
she was "neither cat nor kitten." 

Wednesday evening came and two hours at the 
little cottage home, in conversation with the young 
woman and her mother, easily explained whence the 
mental beauty and excellence of the daughter's mind 
and character. This clear - headed, pure - minded 
faithful Christian mother had filled the mind of this 
young woman, long before she was a dozen years 
old, with love of virtue and hatred of vice. She 
had purified, informed, instructed, enlightened, beau- 
tified, and adorned the mind of her daughter. 

Finally, by continuing to govern as on the first 
day, on and on to the hour of their marriage cere- 
mony, she conquered both of his arms, his head, 
his feet, his affections, and his love; and they were 
married before Christmas. His confidence in her 
love and loyalty is "unlimited." They are married 
to stay married, and happy. 

Beware, take notice! No person, whether man 
or woman, has any right to the confidence of any 
other person until he or she has acquired it — 
earned it. And as to men. No true gentleman will 
ask any person for unearned moral confidence. And 
mothers and daughters who give their confidence, 
unearned, either to men or women, are more foolish 
than a man who loans his money without security. 



NATURE AND MAN. 187 

Such women are easy prey or victims for corrupt, 
immoral scoundrels. 

My advice to young men — decent young men — 
is that they be careful, and hesitate before contract- 
ing marriage with any girl or woman who has had 
much experience with midnight courtships. Ah! 
shameful that any parent of a young woman should 
be so foolishly trusting as to risk their daughter in 
a "ship" that has demoralized and wrecked the moral 
character of more than one million women. And 
my further advice to every decent young woman 
is that during courtship, and any other time, do 
not be wondering w T hat he really thinks of you, but 
be carefully studying to detect and analyze what 
he thinks of moral laws, whether he loves virtue 
and hates vice. Is his mind pure or corrupt? 



THE MARRIAGE RELATION: A 
MOMENTOUS PARTNERSHIP. 



Is Productive of Happiness and Lasting Wel- 
fare or of Disappointments, Hardships, and 
Misery. Some of the Mental Corrup- 
tions That Prevent Peace and Pleas- 
ure of the Marriage Relation of 
Some Homes . Loyal Wives 
and Mothers. "Jealousy! " 
the Hypocritical Cry 
of Criminals. 



How to Stay Married. 
There are partnership contracts conceived and 
entered into between men, designed to accomplish 
innumerable business motives. Some of these are 
vast, prodigious undertakings, commanding the com- 
bined talent, knowledge, and skill of scores of men 
and involving the use of a mountain of money. 



1 88 NATURE AND MAN. 

And, though a rich man invests millions of dol- 
lars in one such financial partnership, the conse- 
quences affecting him may be small compared with 
the greater and more lasting consequences such as 
have resulted, in thousands of cases, from matri- 
monial partnerships of poor young men and women. 
And yet men and women stupidly contract matri- 
monial partnerships after no more careful thought 
and consideration than ought to be given to a busi- 
ness matter involving a fifty-dollar investment. 

A ma mage ceremony is a necessary legal formal- 
ity — the authorized, lawfully witnessed confession 
and the seal to a foregoing social admiration, love, 
and business agreement between a marriageable man 
and woman, called marriage. It is the complete 
and lawful acknowledgement of an agreement and 
contract supposed to have been conceived, talked 
up, and agreed to by a marriageable man and wom- 
an during a period of courtship preceding the mar- 
riage ceremony, which is authorized by a State law. 

Marriage Is a Partnership. 
When two or more persons contract any busi- 
ness partnership, they think, talk, meditate, and 
plan what their business is to be and how it is to 
be conducted. A large amount of careful thought 
and meditation is given to each and every detail, 
in order to secure the greatest economy and to 
avoid error, waste, and extravagance. Marriage is 
no less a partnership than any partnership of men 
designed to own and conduct a store, or to manu- 
facture wagons, or to engage in any other enter- 
prise to accumulate money or property. Marriage 
is a legalized and lawful partnership limited to one 
man and one woman, who may live together in a 
manner which otherwise w^ould be criminal; a part- 
nership to conduct their social and business affairs, 
to continue their professed love for each other, and 



NATURE AND MAN. 189 

to promote their mutual social, moral, and financial 
welfare and happiness. 

Each, the wife and the husband, share in any 
loss to their firm, caused by misfortune or other- 
wise, and in any profit or gain by good manage- 
ment or otherwise. Prudence, care, and economy 
are as necessary to their financial success in the 
partnership by marriage as in the management of 
the business of any other firm. Wherefore, before 
each and every marriage of people of small money or 
property capital, they ought to consider the amount 
of capital at their command (of their own) and plan 
how best to invest it. They ought to talk about 
their financial matters and problems, and each heart- 
ily agree cheerfully to discontinue all unnecessary 
expense and to observe and practice ways and meth- 
ods of practical economy for the benefit of their 
firm. Don't board; keep house, if in one room only. 

It is a partnership which, in its social, moral, 
financial, and business importance far exceeds an} 7 
other partnership to which any man or woman can 
become a party. Its time or lawful duration is for 
the natural lifetime of each partner, whose personal 
weal or woe depends largely on the moral and social 
adaptability of one to the other; and this matter 
of adaptability lies largely in the agreement and har- 
mony of moral education and personal sentiments. 

A very common cause of discord in marriage 
partnerships is corrupt and excessive love of pleas- 
ure — of amusements. Love of pleasure is, perhaps, 
the most demoralizing and damaging of all mental 
corruptions; as it both keeps the firm poor finan- 
cially and leads its victims into all sorts and man- 
ner of immorality to appease and gratify their un- 
natural and excessive desire for pleasure. The im- 
moderate love of pleasure is far more corrupting 
than love of money. Behold, many men and wom- 
U9 love whatever they esteem as pleasure, however 



i 9 o NATURE AND MAN. 

immoral and degrading, far more than money, else 
they would not part with their money for such 
amusements as millions do. 

Another cause of serious discord in the marriage 
relation is the corruption of infidelity. Man, in his 
natural, uncorrupted state of mind, is predisposed 
to believe in and worship the Omnipotent. Infidel- 
ity (disbelief of the Scriptures or in a Creator) is 
an odious mental corruption, a mental pollution that 
prevents accord and harmony in some homes. 

Immoderate, excessive love of pleasure, together 
with haughty pride, is mental corruption enough 
to destroy the virtue and harmony of almost any 
marriage co-partnership. (See Index — , " Mental 
Corruption.") 

Man a Social Being. 
Man, whether moral or immoral, is a social being 
and a lover of company, and a lover of friends and 
friendly associations. The social nature of man is 
proven by the existence of thousands of social or- 
ganizations, clearly showing his nature and desire 
to associate along with his species. However, bet- 
ter be suspicious of a man who is immoderately 
sociable. But there is, aside from unselfish love of 
company, some selfish desire for personal gratifica- 
tion, as of self -display, that inspires and induces 
men and women to become members of social clubs 
and organizations. Some of the many different so- 
cial organizations may benefit their members; but, 
as pleasure — the gratification of desire for pleasure — 
is the object of nearly all social organizations, and 
as too much desire for pleasure, without sufficient 
regard for right, is leading many thousands of peo- 
ple into immoral associations, therefore any such 
association as will best promote both Dleasure and 
welfare is the sort of association that ought to be 
preferred and most heartily encouraged. And there 



NATURE AND MAN. 191 

is no other association of men and women that so 
nearly satisfies the normal desires of human nature 
as the marriage relation, with the quiet and peace- 
ful associations of the private home, along with a 
contented, sincere, and loyal wife and loving chil- 
dren. In any social club there may be unfriendly 
and objectionable members, and discord and strife; 
but the marriage relation and the private home, 
where both husband and wife are loyal, easily ex- 
cludes all objectionable associations. 

The average private home of an unperverted 
husband and wife is a sacred and loved place of 
mental wealth, of riches in normal (natural) quiet, 
peace, pleasure, and joy; and all these in quality 
and quantities not found in society's social organ- 
izations. No, not found even when the pleasure- 
seeker spends thousands of dollars running after 
and vainly seeking for satisfying pleasure in society. 

Joy Full of Glory. 

While there are privations, cares, labor, and dis- 
appointments, yet the joy unspeakable and full of 
glory is the joy in the humble and unpretentious 
home, where the elements of genuine good char- 
acter are known, and the husband and wife put a 
high, uplifting valuation on each of the elements 
which constitute good character and hate the ele- 
ments of bad character. In such homes there is 
no desire for divorce. The quiet, peace, pleasure, 
and joy of the private home are legitimate — all in 
accord and sweet harmony with man's beautiful 
normal nature; and, consequently, not followed and 
punished by disease and sick-headaches, which are 
penalties following violations of mental and physical 
laws of one's genuine nature. 

But Mrs. A., a kind-hearted, lovable woman, set- 
ting good examples for her children and laboring 
for the purity and welfare of her home, says: "Oh! 



i 9 2 NATURE AND MAN. 

there are disturbance, unrest, displeasure, trouble, 
and sorrow, ah! and broken hearts in many private 
homes." Yes, sadly, married life is not alike and 
the same in all homes as I have pictured it. But 
all wives and husbands are governed largely by love; 
and it is the vast difference in the nature of love that 
makes the difference between good and bad hus- 
bands and wives. While normal love is the best thing 
in the world, abnormal (perverted) love is the worst. 
Normal love is the purest, cleanest thing in the world; 
while abnormal love is the most impure, unclean 
thing in the world. Wherefore there is disagree- 
ment and distressing discord in a home where hus- 
band and wife are divided by a wide difference in 
the nature of their love. The vast difference in 
the mental estimation and valuation people put on 
moral principles, which are the elements of moral 
right and good character, makes the difference be- 
tween normal and abnormal love. Mrs. A. appre- 
ciates and puts a high valuation on moral princi- 
ples; while her husband puts a far too low valuation 
on the same. To Mrs. A.'s normal mind, any im- 
morality is a mean, hateful thing; but to the per- 
verted mind of her husband, morality is only a lit- 
tle better, if as good as immorality; and there can 
be little, if any, genuine affinity between wife and 
husband when so disagreeing. As a man's estima- 
tion and valuation of moral principles determine 
his character and govern him in social and business 
affairs, it also is equal estimation and valuation of 
moral principles that will, usually, cause quite gen- 
eral agreement, harmony, and sympathy of husband 
and wife. 

Knowledge of this mental law ought to stop 
marriages of men and women who differ on ques- 
tions of morality. Proper regard for and loyalty 
to the above law of human nature would stop a 
courtship whenever a general difference of moral 



NATURE AND MAN. 193 

esteem and valuation is discovered, and thus pre- 
vent marriage and subsequent discord and desire 
for divorce. Perceive, it is no fault of the sacred 
marriage system that there are disagreements and 
painful and discouraging discord in many homes; 
but that the fault is in vain and unsuccessful efforts 
to mate and unite by marriage vastly different and 
antagonistic elements of character. The fact that 
there are about an equal number of male and fe- 
male children born is significant as evidence (almost 
proof) that the Creator designed that every man 
have one wife, and every woman one husband. And, 
too, the troubles, sorrow, torments, and grief that, 
sooner or later, overtake everyone who violates this 
ideal rule — one man for one woman, and one wom- 
an for one man, and no more — is proof that such 
is the proper relation and association of men and 
women. 

Men Ought to Marry. 
Men in good health ought to marry. God has said 
that it is not good for a man to be alone. There- 
fore the old bachelor seems to assume that he knows 
better than God about the consequences of being 
alone. But I am convinced that God knows more 
than any old bachelor both about this and many 
other matters. The fact is, the old bachelor is a 
homeless man — as, what 's a home without a wife ? 
And if she is one of those who puts a high valua- 
. tion on moral principles, thus esteeming moral right 
and honor more highly than intoxicating pleasures 
and property wealth, there is nothing so pure and, 
excepting a pure man, there is nothing so lovable 
as the pure -hearted, devoted, loyal wife. She will 
cheerfully share all your privations, toil, and pov- 
erty; all your disappointments, sorrow, and grief; 
and all your comforts, success, and joy. She will 
cheer and encourage you in times of sorrow, and 



194 NATURE AND MAN. 

increase your pleasure in times of prosperity. She 
will excuse your faults and defend you when all 
others desert you. In fact, a pure-hearted wife is 
the closest, most intimate, most hearty friend and 
the best co-partner that man can have. 

Other relations of men and women involve dol- 
lars and cents and, maybe, the baser passions; but 
the marriage relation involves all the better qual- 
ities, including the purest and noblest affections of 
men and women. In short, the value of a loyal, 
dutiful wife can not be estimated in dollars, as she 
is entirely above money value. But some men say 
that there is a sort of lottery-risk in marriage. A 
sufficient answer is, that women, in marrying, take 
a far greater risk than men. There are millions 
of excellent, pure-hearted young women who have 
never yet entertained an unclean thought; bright, 
intelligent, industrious, and lovable girls in every 
county and perhaps in every school district; young 
women who, if married to men as good as they are, 
would be true, loyal, and most faithful wives. 

Every young man ought to determine to have 
a wife of his own; and, with this noble object in 
view, should put away (quit) any bad habit and stop 
every unnecessary expenditure of money, and thus 
save money for the necessities of the anticipated 
happy co-partnership — wife and home. 

"Jealousy!" the Cry of Criminals. 
Nearly all my readers have heard the old story 
of the guilty wolf and the innocent lamb. Both 
were in a creek of running water. The wolf plunged 
about, disturbing mud and roiling the water, and 
then accused the lamb, which was far down the 
creek, of stirring up the mud and making the 
water unfit to drink. TheHamb was entirely in- 
nocent, as the water did not run up stream. But 
this dishonest wolf did muddy the water and made 



NATURE AND MAN. 195 

it unfit for the innocent lamb to drink. The gross 
dishonesty of the wolf is more than equaled by the 
dishonest, immoral sneaks who pose as innocent 
lambs while they accuse the innocent of jealousy. 

Jealousy is a term which is in misuse generally, 
to discredit and drag down the reputation of the 
innocent; a term very generally — almost exclusive- 
ly — used by immoral and lewd sneaks, male and fe- 
male, as a convenient and effective counter-charge 
and false accusation against betrayed husbands and 
wives. Jealousy is and has been for at least a half- 
century the fraudulent accusation everywhere and 
almost always set up in self-defense by hypocritical 
wives and husbands when accused of improprieties 
and immoral associations. Both the criminal male 
and the criminal female, usually, if not always, when 
detected and accused, declare and swear that they 
are as spotless as angels, and endeavor to protect 
their reputation and deceive the public by the one 
and same lying counter-charge and deceptive cry of 
jealousy. I have noticed this counter or offset ac- 
cusation of jealousy and studied the characters of 
the accusers for more than forty years, and have 
found that this word "jealousy" is the shield of the 
immoral, and that it is very seldom used by moral 
people. 

Truth (things as they are, whether right or wrong) 
represents truth. The person who does not love the 
elements (principles) of morality and hate the ele- 
ments of immorality is under no more moral re- 
straint than any animal of the field or forest. Where- 
fore there are many thousands of immoral, corrupt, 
hypocritical, and sneaking married men and women 
(and many unmarried) who, when suspected or de- 
tected, immediately set up the cry and accusation 
of "jealousy," "suspicious character," and strive to 
pull down and discredit their accusers. And, when 
a suit for divorce is brought by a wronged wife or 



196 NATURE AND MAN. 

husband, the counter-charges of misuse and " bru- 
tality" are made to defend the criminal sneak by 
attacking the character of the innocent and wronged 
wife or husband. Thousands of sneaking mothers 
put a valuation on virtue but little, if any, above 
vice, and uphold rude, coarse, corrupting, and de- 
moralizing improprieties, such as make the debauch- 
ery of their own daughters only a question of time. 
No other persons on earth can so completely cor- 
rupt, demoralize, and pollute a private home, and 
so nearly annihilate all the sacred ties of birth, 
blood, and love, and separate and scatter, without 
truth or mercy, the betrayed husband, father, and 
children, as a vile, sneaking adulteress. She, wiien 
accused, cries " Jealousy!" and usually succeeds in 
setting the children against their father, which is 
another proof of a mother's powerful influence for 
good or for evil, as may be. 

No Jealousy without Provocation. 
Men are not naturally jealous. Who has failed 
to notice more than one case where there existed, 
seemingly, a stupid absence of jealousy? So great 
is the average husband's faith in the loyalty of his 
wife that it would be very dangerous to insinuate 
or hint to him that she is immoral. I know a hus- 
band who, when told by his own brothers that his 
wife was unfaithful, staggered as a man intoxicated 
and fell to the ground. She had been untrue to 
him for several years. As there is no affinity be- 
tween virtue and vice, he lived with her no longer — 
no, never, never again. While the well-provided- 
for mistress of a fine and commodious home, ele- 
gantly furnished, she was the sly and sneaking be- 
trayer of a loyal husband. 

Pure Mothers, Loyal Daughters. 
The pure-hearted, noble men and women of past 
generations were great and priceless gifts to the 



NATURE AND MAN. 197 

world from equally pure-hearted, sensible, noble- 
minded mothers. And about all the truly good and 
pure men and women of to-day are the priceless gifts 
of pure-hearted, devoted, loyal mothers; of mothers 
who were loyal to their husbands and true and 
faithful to their children. And they never accused 
their husbands of jealousy. The wives and moth- 
ers who have made the world so good as it now is 
were hard-working women, uncorrupted by modern 
society " clubs," organized by "sports" for sports, 
games, and pleasure. They were contented, intel- 
ligent, and happy home-bodies, who easily found 
great, constant, and satisfactory peace, pleasure, and 
joy in co-working in harmony with their confiding 
husbands for the welfare of their usually small and 
uncommodious but happy homes. Personally, they 
were very beautiful, charming, and fascinating wom- 
en, but entirely unpretentious, and each anxious to 
please her own husband; and the carnal-minded, brut- 
ish were not attracted. And these pure, loyal, and 
noble mothers never accused their husbands of jeal- 
ousy. These beautiful mothers, concerned and busy 
about things far more elevating, never painted them- 
selves with lily-white and rose-pink, nor with any 
other face paints. So mentally handsome, so charm- 
ingly beautiful were the mothers of the truly good, 
pure, and true men and women of the past genera- 
tions, and so exceedingly beautiful are the mothers 
of the pure-hearted women of the present genera- 
tion, as to command the hearty admiration of all 
decent people. 

But listen, the beauty of all these wives and 
mothers (and it was great) was in the charm of good 
character — yea, so beautifully adorned with Nature's 
elements of good character, in which is the beauty 
of mental purity, that any sort of artificial painting 
would seriously mar the natural beauty which Na- 
ture always lavishes so abundantly upon the pure 



198 . NATURE AND MAN. 

in heart. And these beautiful mothers were never 
suspected of any sort of sneaking immorality, and 
never accused their husbands of jealousy. 

But there are many thousands of impure, cor- 
rupt, debauched, hypocritical, and sneaking moth- 
ers; thousands of these are dressed in fine, costly 
silks, satins, and fine linens; and all these, too, had 
mothers. But the beautiful mothers of whom I 
have told were not the mothers of these. 

The pure, prudent, and undefiled are seldom — 
almost never — accused of disloyalty to their mar- 
riage obligations. The high valuation the pure in 
heart put upon good character, and their clean con- 
versation, prudent conduct, moral associates, and 
proper hours afford nothing on which suspicion of 
immorality can be based, and there is no foundation 
for jealousy; and, usually, there is none. A man 
or woman can easily stand up at a prayer-meeting, 
surrounded by people professedly Christian, and pro- 
fess great love for moral and Christian principles; 
but it is a far better test and stronger evidence of 
good character when in mixed company, as in busi- 
ness offices, stores, and shops, one frankly and in 
definite and unmistakable words fearlessly favors 
morality, modesty, virtue, chastity, and honor, and 
emphatically denounces the opposites of these vir- 
tues, which are the elements of bad character. 

A wife often has favorable opportunities to ex- 
press in plain words her love of morality, virtue, 
and chastity, and her hatred of everything that is 
wrong morally; and it is her duty to do so in com- 
pany and often, that her personal influence be good. 
It is from the abundance of the heart (the affec- 
tions) that the tongue speaketh. A wife who is in 
fact moral and who makes her moral influence felt, 
in the manner stated above, will do a vast amount 
of good. Her community will be better because of 
her good influence; and she will neither be dis- 



NATURE AND MAN. 199 

trusted by her husband nor accuse him of jealousy. 
The greatest power in the world for good, and for 
evil, is vested in wives and mothers. No other peo- 
ple can accomplish so much good by their examples 
and words as mothers can, and no other people so 
much evil. Owing to more nearly constant asso- 
ciation along with her children, she has far more 
opportunity to teach and mold the minds of her 
children, by lessons. and personal examples and in- 
fluences, than any other persons. A pure, loyal wife 
or husband is a priceless jewel. 



SURPRISING INCREASE OF SMALL 
SAVINGS. 



Figures Showing Astonishing Amounts of 

Money and Time Saved in a Few Years. 

Only One Lifetime for Each Human 

Being; One Can Not Live His 

Life Over. Read and Think! 

Neither Time Nor Money 

to Waste. 



Big Surprises for Business Men. 
The following correct mathematical estimates 
show how much the average gain or saving was 
per day while a man was accumulating any stated 
amount of money or property, not exceeding sixty- 
five thousand seven hundred and thirty-three dol- 
lars and eighty cents , in its cash value; also how 
much specified small daily savings amount to in 
periods of time up to thirty-five years. These es- 
timates certainly will greatly interest every good 
mind. At first conception I was quickly convinced 
that the mental light and influences of such es- 
timates would be very valuable. So I endeav- 
ored to obtain the necessary figures from a bank 



2oo NATURE AND MAN. 

and elsewhere, but could not. Confident that they 
would be worth the full cost — several days' mental 
work with my pencil, — I did not hesitate to do it; 
and the amounts are correct, as stated. In obtain- 
ing the amounts, I added no interest to any sav- 
ings until the second year — no interest on the daily 
savings during the year in which they were made. 
Wherefore, in fact, the amounts really represent a 
fraction less than five per cent interest from dates 
of accumulation. 

One Cent a Day. 
One cent a day and five per cent interest, wheth- 
er saved or spent, amounts, in five years, to twenty 
dollars and sixteen cents; in ten years, to forty- 
five dollars and eighty-nine cents; in fifteen years, 
to seventy-eight dollars and seventy-four cents; in 
twenty years, to one hundred and twenty dollars 
and sixty-six cents; in twenty-five years, to one 
hundred and seventy-four dollars and sixteen cents; 
in thirty years, to two hundred and forty-two dol- 
lars and forty-three cents; and in thirty-five years, 
to three hundred and twenty-nine dollars and fifty- 
seven cents. 

Five Cents a Day. 
Five cents a day and five per cent interest, as 
stated, in five years, amounts to one hundred dol- 
lars and eighty-four cents; in ten years, to two hun- 
dred and twenty-nine dollars and fifty-four cents; 
in fifteen years, to three hundred and ninety-three 
dollars and eighty-one cents; in twenty years, to 
six hundred and three dollars and forty-six cents; 
in twenty-five years, to eight hundred and seventy- 
one dollars and four cents; in thirty years, to twelve 
hundred and twelve dollars and fifty-four cents; and 
in thirty-five years, to sixteen hundred and forty- 
eight dollars and forty cents. 



NATURE AND MAN. 201 

Ten Cents a Day. 

Ten cents a day and five per cent interest, in 
five years, amounts to two hundred and one dol- 
lars and sixty-nine cents; in ten years, to four hun- 
dred and fifty-nine dollars and nine cents; in fif- 
teen years, to seven hundred and eighty-seven dol- 
lars and sixty- two cents; in twenty years, to twelve 
hundred and six dollars and ninety cents; in twenty- 
five years, to seventeen hundred and forty-two dol- 
lars and four cents; in thirty years, to two thous- 
and four hundred and twenty-five dollars and three 
cents; and in thirty-five years, to two thousand five 
hundred and eighty-two dollars and seventy-eight 
cents. 

Fifteen Cents a Day. 

Fifteen cents a day and five per cent interest, 
in five years, amounts to three hundred and two 
dollars and fifty-three cents; in ten years, to six 
hundred and eighty-eight dollars and sixty-five cents; 
in fifteen years, to one thousand one hundred and 
eighty-one dollars and forty-three cents; in twenty 
years, to one thousand eight hundred and ten dol- 
lars and thirty-six cents; in twenty-five years, to 
two thousand six hundred and thirteen dollars and 
six cents; in thirty years, to three thousand six hun- 
dred and forty-eight dollars and thirty-four cents; 
and in thirty-five years, to three thousand eight 
hundred and eighty-five dollars and fifty-one cents. 

Twenty Cents a Day. 
Twenty cents a day and five per cent interest, 
in five years, amounts to four hundred and three 
dollars and thirty-seven cents; in ten years, to nine 
hundred and eighteen dollars and nineteen cents; 
in fifteen years, to one thousand five hundred and 
seventy-five dollars and twenty-four cents; in twen- 
ty years, to two thousand four hundred and thir- 
teen dollars and eighty-two cents; in twenty-five 



202 NATURE AND MAN. 

years, to three thousand four hundred and eighty- 
four dollars and nine cents; in thirty years, to four 
thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars and three 
cents; and in thirty-five years, to six thousand five 
hundred and ninety- three dollars and thirty-seven 
cents. 

Twenty-Five Cents a Day. 

Twenty-five cents a day and five per cent inter- 
est, in five years, amounts to five hundred and four 
dollars and twenty-two cents; in ten years, to one 
thousand one hundred and forty-seven dollars and 
seventy-four cents; in fifteen years, to one thous- 
and nine hundred and sixty-nine dollars and six 
cents; in twenty years, to three thousand and sev- 
enteen dollars and thirty-three cents; in twenty- 
five years, to four thousand three hundred and fifty- 
five dollars and fifty -seven cents; in thirty years, 
to six thousand and sixty-three dollars and fifteen 
cents; and in thirty-five years, to eight thousand 
two hundred and forty-two dollars and forty-nine 
cents. 

Thirty-Five Cents a Day. 

Thirty-five cents a day and five per cent inter- 
est, in five years, amounts to seven hundred and 
five dollars and eighty-nine cents; in ten years, to 
one thousand six hundred and six dollars and eighty 
one cents; in fifteen years, to two thousand seven 
hundred and fifty-six dollars and sixty-five cents; 
in twenty years, to four thousand two hundred and 
twenty-four dollars and fifteen cents; in twenty- 
five years, to six thousand and ninety-seven dollars 
and ten cents; in thirty years, to eight thousand 
four hundred and eighty-seven dollars and fifty-two 
cents; and in thirty-five years, to eleven thousand 
five hundred and thirty-five dollars and ninety-four 
cents. 



NATURE AND MAN. 203 

Fifty Cents a Day. 
Fifty cents a day and five per cent interest, in 
five years, amounts to one thousand and eight dol- 
lars and forty-two cents; in ten years, to two thous- 
and two hundred and ninety-five dollars and three 
cents; in fifteen years, to three thousand nine hun- 
dred and thirty-seven dollars and fifty-two cents; 
in twenty years, to six thousand and thirty-two 
dollars and ninety-nine cents; in twenty-five years, 
to eight thousand seven hundred and eight dollars 
and twenty-one cents; in thirty years, to twelve 
thousand one hundred and twenty-two dollars and 
fifty-five cents; and in thirty-five years to seven- 
teen thousand four hundred and eighty-six dollars 
and seventy-two cents. 

Seventy-Five Cents a Day. 

Seventy-five cents a day and five per cent in- 
terest, whether saved or spent, in five years, amounts 
to one thousand five hundred and twelve dollars and 
sixty-four cents; in ten years, to three thousand 
four hundred and forty-three dollars and twenty 
cents; in fifteen years, to five thousand nine hun- 
dred and seven dollars and thirteen cents; in twen- 
ty years, to nine thousand and fifty-one dollars and 
thirty-one cents; in twenty-five years, to thirteen 
thousand and sixty - four dollars and sixty - seven 
cents; in thirty years, to eighteen thousand one 
hundred and eighty - six dollars and eighty - three 
cents ; and in thirty-five years to twenty-four thous- 
and seven hundred and twenty - four dollars and 
eighteen cents. 

One Dollar a Day. 

One dollar a day and five per cent interest, 
whether saved or spent, in five years, amounts to 
two thousand and sixteen dollars and eighty-five 
cents; in ten years, to four thousand five hundred 
and ninety dollars and ninety-five cents; in fifteen 



2o 4 NATURE AND MAN. 

years, to seven thousand eight hundred and seventy- 
six dollars and twenty cents; in twenty years, to 
twelve thousand and sixty-nine dollars and eleven 
cents; in twenty-five years, to seventeen thousand 
four hundred and twenty dollars and forty-three 
cents; in thirty years, to twenty-four thousand two 
hundred and fifty dollars and twenty-two cents; and 
in thirty-five years, to thirty- two thousand nine hun- 
dred and sixty-six dollars and ninety-seven cents. 

One Dollar and Fifty Cents a Day. 
One dollar and fifty cents a day and five per 
cent interest on same, in five years, amounts to 
three thousand and twenty-five dollars and twenty- 
eight cents; in ten years, to six thousand eight 
hundred and eighty-six dollars and thirty-nine cents; 
in fifteen years, to eleven thousand eight hundred 
and twelve dollars and five cents; in twenty years, 
to eighteen thousand and one hundred dollars and 
seventy-eight cents; in twenty-five years, to twenty- 
six thousand one hundred and twenty-six dollars 
and ninety-seven cents; in thirty years, to thirty-six 
thousand three hundred and seventy dollars and 
sixty-three cents; and in thirty-five years, to forty- 
nine thousand four hundred and forty-four dollars 
and forty-six cents. 

Two Dollars a Day. 

Two dollars a day and five per cent on same, in 
five years, amounts to four thousand and thirty- 
three dollars and seventy-one cents; in ten years, 
to nine thousand one hundred and eighty-one dol- 
lars and eighty-six cents; in fifteen years, to fifteen 
thousand seven hundred and fifty-two dollars and 
thirty-five cents; in twenty years, to twenty-four 
thousand one hundred and thirty-eight dollars and 
fourteen cents; in twenty-five years, to thirty-four 
thousand eight hundred and forty dollars and seven- 
ty-seven cents; in thirty years, to forty-eight thous- 



NATURE AND MAN. 205 

and five hundred dollars and thirty-four cents; and 
in thirty-five years, to sixty-five thousand seven hun- 
dred and thirty-three dollars and eighty cents. 

Valuable Mental Food. 
Perceive, if a man begins when he is eighteen 
years old to save one cent a day and makes five 
per cent interest on the one cent a day, when he 
is fifty-three years old he will be worth three hun- 
dred and twenty-nine dollars and fifty-seven cents. 
Money enough to build a cheap house for a family! 
If he saves five cents a day, he will be worth one 
thousand six hundred and forty-eight dollars and 
forty cents when he is fifty-three years old. Per- 
ceive, many a man has not saved five cents a day! 
But suppose that he saves an average of ten cents 
a day and increases the saving five per cent from 
the age of twenty-one; he will be wx>rth two thous- 
and five hundred and eighty-two dollars and seventy- 
eight cents when he is fifty-six years old. Another 
man, who commenced saving at the age of eight- 
een and is worth three thousand eight hundred and 
eighty-five dollars and fifty-one cents when fifty- 
three years old, has saved just fifteen cents a day 
and increased the fifteen-cents-a-day saving five per 
cent. A man who commenced saving when sev- 
enteen years old and is worth eight thousand two 
hundred and forty-two dollars and forty-nine cents 
at the age of fifty-two has saved twenty-five cents 
a day and five per cent. Mr. A. commenced sav- 
ing at the age of twenty and now is worth seven- 
teen thousand four hundred and eighty-six dollars 
and seventy-two cents. He is fifty-five years old, 
and his average daily saving was fifty cents a day 
and five per cent increase of same. Mr. B., a mer- 
chant, commenced by saving pennies while a boy, 
thirty-five years ago.fe : He now is worth twenty-four 
thousand seven hundred and twenty-four dollars and 



206 NATURE AND MAN. 

eighteen cents. His average daily saving was sev- 
enty-five cents and five per cent. Messrs. Brown 
& Smith, merchants, each commenced saving pen- 
nies when they were boys thirty-five years ago. 
They now are worth, jointly, thirty-two thousand 
nine hundred and sixty-six dollars and ninety-seven 
cents. Their average daily collective saving was 
just one dollar and the five per cent interest on 
savings. 

Any man who has saved one dollar and fifty 
cents a day and increased the same five per cent 
for twenty years is worth eighteen thousand one 
hundred dollars and seventy-eight cents. If he has 
saved one dollar and fifty cents a day and five per 
cent for thirty-five years, he is worth forty-nine 
thousand four hundred and forty-four dollars and 
forty-six cents. If he has saved two dollars a day 
and the five per cent for thirty-five years, he is 
worth sixty-five thousand seven hundred and thirty- 
three dollars and eighty cents. 

A man pays as much for one glass of beer as 
is the average daily saving of each of a large per 
cent of the men of any one of the States of the 
Union. Another pays as much for a deck of cheap 
cards as is the average daily saving of each of a 
very large per cent of the men of any one of the 
States. Perceive, that the daily average saving of 
a large per cent of the men of any one of the States, 
from the age of twenty-one to the age of fifty, is 
less than ten cents each, as I have shown. A man 
pays more to see a baseball game than hundreds 
of thousands of men average each per day, in sav- 
ings, during the best years of their lives for work — 
the period of thirty-five years following their twenty- 
first birthdays. A man pays more for two dishes 
of ice-cream than the average daily savings of a 
very large per cent of men. The dancing man pays 
more for two tickets to a cheap-priced dance than 



NATURE AND MAN. 207 

the average day's saving of the successful man while 
accumulating thirty thousand dollars. Another pays 
five, ten, fifty, or more cents a day for tobacco, 
while his average saving for thirty-five years may 
not be more than one cent a day! As much is paid 
for a wide hair-ribbon for a bow as the father's 
average daily savings while struggling to accumu- 
late his first eight or ten thousand dollars. And, 
finally, as much is paid for a bottle of face white- 
wash as the successful man's average daily saving 
while he is accumulating his first twelve thousand 
dollars. 

The Foregoing Facts Easily Proven. 

If people will carefully estimate the property 
and money worth of their acquaintances, it will be 
proven that a very large per cent of these acquaint- 
ances are not worth more than ten cents a day and 
five per cent would amount to at their several ages. 
Suppose that all these acquaintances commenced 
saving ten cents a day and five per cent on same 
when they became twenty-one years old; at the 
age of thirty-one, each would be worth four hun- 
dred and fifty-nine dollars and nine cents; at the 
age of thirty-six, each would be worth seven hun- 
dred and eighty-seven dollars and sixty-two cents; 
at the age of forty-one, each would be worth one 
thousand two hundred and six dollars and ninety 
cents; and at the age of forty-six, each would be 
worth one thousand seven hundred and forty-two 
dollars and four cents. 

They would be worth these amounts, providing 
that each commenced empty-handed and has re- 
ceived no presents and no inheritance of property 
or money. I add five per cent each succeeding year 
to the principal — to the ten cents, each day's sav- 
ings — because a man is supposed to so use or loan 
his savings as to earn or increase five per cent or 



208 NATURE AND MAN. 

more. Proper use of one's savings ought to increase 
them fully five or more per cent. 

Earnings, whether large or small, add nothing 
to a man's capital unless saved. When men's av- 
erage daily savings for a long period of years do 
not exceed five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, 
or more cents a day, they are living very close to the 
line between gain and loss; so close to the limit that 
a very few cents' increase of one's expenditures will 
cause a shrinkage and reduction of his capital. 

There are many thousands — a vast, staggering 
army of men — who are not accumulating capital 
and have no savings accounts. They earn and waste 
both money and time. This morning I noticed a 
sign in the window of a Kansas City, Mo., saloon, 
which says: "Any bottle in this window for one 
dollar." There are bottles of whisky, gin, and wine, 
or so labeled. 

They Saved Both Pennies and Time. 

It has been proven by the experiences of many 
millions of men and women that to succeed in any 
effort to make the most and best of one's lifetime 
both pennies and time must be saved. A very large 
per cent of the men who have succeeded in accu- 
mulating a large amount of property did so by sav- 
ing both time and pennies. And it no less is true 
now than during the past centuries and cycles of 
time that to succeed, either from a financial or a 
moral viewpoint, time and pennies must not be 
wasted. The young men and women who do not 
save pennies, nickels, and dimes are not at all likely 
ever to save many dollars. Count the cost, not for 
a day or a month, but for a long period, as is il- 
lustrated in the estimates I present; and then de- 
cide whether or not certain things that cost money 
and time are really worth their cost. 

If one wishes to succeed, time must not be wasted. 



NATURE AND MAN. 209 

Every hour spent at the card-table, or the billiard- 
table, or at baseball, or the dance, or in other prof- 
itless ways, is a lost opportunity — and a wasted hour, 
during which a useful lesson could have been ob- 
tained from a good book, that would have made 
the reader wiser and better all through lifetime. 

None of the thousands who have been distin- 
guished by noble and useful lives would ever have 
been known to the world had they wasted time in 
any such ways as above. They did not waste time. 

One hour each day in one year amounts to sixty 
days of six hours each, which is the length of the 
student's school-day. Only half an hour a day gives 
one thirty days' schooling in one year. No young 
person of good common sense needs to remain ig- 
norant, when one hour each day amounts to sixty 
school-days in one year. The greatest scholarship is 
made up of little acquisitions — by learning but one 
little thing at a time; the whole scholarship being 
acquired as a child learns the alphabet — one let- 
ter at a time. Young man, young woman, grasp 
these facts mentally, and work to be somebody of 
consequence; and, with self-respect, energy, and econ- 
omy, you will succeed. Btiy a good dictionary and 
study words — their correct spelling, pronunciation, 
and exact meaning. This will be an important foun- 
dation study, and of very great value and every- 
day use as long as you live. Write words that you 
wish to study in a blank book, and carry it in your 
pocket for convenient study. 

It is true that the purer and more nearly fault- 
less 1 a -person's daily life, the smaller the waste of 
time and money, and the fewer the sorrows and 
the more numerous and longer the periods of mental 
peace and joy. The prevailing disastrous waste of 
time and money is the foregoing cause of a very 
large per cent of the privations, hardships, sickness 



2 io NATURE AND MAN. 

troubles, sorrows, and poverty that worry and tor- 
ment humanity. 

In each of hundreds of hotels I saw men wast- 
ing, in less time than one day, from two to ten 
days of eight hours each, playing cards. The time 
wasted in one year playing cards, in the United 
States, if properly and profitably employed, would 
earn money enough to provide many thousands of 
comfortable homes for the homeless. The vast 
amount of time wasted in various expensive but 
uninstructive and unprofitable games, plays, and 
amusements, some of which are coarse and demor- 
alizing, is needed for the personal self -culture neces- 
sary properly to develop the neglected moral and the 
intellectual faculties of the minds of these waste- 
ful people; and, too, in many thousands of cases, 
the wasted time is needed to be used in earning 
money that, in turn, is much needed either by the 
wasteful individual or his family. 

From the moral viewpoint, the basis or under- 
lying cause of much of the extravagance of time 
and money is pride, which is one of the most ob- 
noxious, harmful, odious, and hateful of mental cor- 
ruptions. It is a filthy corruption of one's moral 
faculties, producing haughty self-esteem and exces- 
sive love of dress and personal display, far exceed- 
ing the proud spirit's love of humanity. Therefore 
the vast waste of time and money is to appease 
corrupt and perverted love — love of dress, fashions, 
styles, amusements, pleasures, and depraved appe- 
tite for demoralizing drink. 



NATURE AND MAN. 



THE VALUATION OF MONEY IS TOO LOW. 



Of Unnecessary Things It Is Too High. 
Erroneous Valuations Cause of Ex- 
travagant and Wasteful Expend- 
itures of Undervalued Money. 



How the Poor Can Help Themselves. 

It is not at all the "love of money" that most 
damages humanity. Instead, it is the corrupt and 
extravagant love of other and unnecessary things. 
The more nearly immediate cause of incalculable 
damage to humanity is the prevailing and quite 
general undervaluation of money, which misleads 
and keeps millions of people from saving a larger 
part of their earnings, and thus accumulating money 
with which to buy and own good and comfortable 
homes. As to the love of money, I suppose that 
a person may feel some degree of love for money. 
But I never did. Money is senseless, blind, stupid, 
and heartless. I easily can love my normal, un- 
perverted species — so sensible, gentle, kind, and 
true. So deep, so high, so wide, and so great is 
my sincere, inspiring love for humanity that I can 
not divide it with cold and heartless money! 

But there is a vast difference between loving mon- 
ey and valuing money. Perceive, a person may put 
a too high or a too low valuation on money or any 
other property or thing, without loving it. And a 
person may put a high valuation on a worthless 
thing, as a sort of keepsake, but is not supposed 
to put a money valuation on anything that has no 
commercial value. Many unnecessary things have 
attained a commercial valuation far above their real 
worth to mankind. The commercial value — the 



212 NATURE AND MAN. 

store price — of an article must not be accepted as 
its value to people in general. To illustrate: Just 
now watermelons are selling in a large city for one 
dollar apiece, and new tomatoes at fifteen cents a 
pound. One dollar is the commercial value of the 
watermelons in that city, and is not an extrava- 
gant price for the rich man to pay; but ruinously 
extravagant at one-quarter the price for a poor 
man. A watermelon is but little more than sweet- 
ened water, and is an unnecessary luxury at any 
price. So, too, about the new, ripe tomatoes: while 
they are not an extravagance on the table of the 
rich man, they are a luxury and too expensive for 
the table of a poor man. And believe me, the poor 
man and his family can live as long (or longer) than 
the rich man and may be, in fact, happier. 

A large per cent of the people of this twentieth 
century entertain too little love for money; or, in 
other w T ords, they are putting a far too low com- 
parative valuation on money and many unneces- 
sary things which they buy. In still other words, 
the relative valuations are wrong. Their valuation 
of money is too low, and of luxuries and many un- 
necessary things it is too high. The elaborate and 
correct money estimates in the preceding article, 
showing that during the past thirty-five years the 
average daily savings of a large per cent of the 
men of the United States have been less than ten 
cents a day and five per cent interest for the use 
which has been made of their savings (and there 
has been no time during the past thirty-five years 
when a man could not have obtained five per cent 
and good security for the use of his savings). It 
also is shown that only a small per cent of men 
have saved twenty-five cents a day and the five 
per cent. These facts, considered in connection 
with the poor man's unnecessary expenses, furnishes 



NATURE AND MAN. 213 

positive proof that men and women are putting a 
too low valuation on money. 

Not Fit to Live or Die. 
Any person who has given the preceding pages 
of this book a careful, thoughtful reading has not 
failed to perceive the author's intense desire to 
benefit humanity. His sentiment is that a man is 
not fit either to live or die, who will not endeavor 
to do something to benefit mankind. Anxious to 
suggest a practical way or method by which all 
poor people can help themselves, and having given 
much thought to the financial conditions which ham- 
per, perplex, and worry the worthy poor, I find one 
way in which nearly all men and women can, if 
they will, help themselves — to some extent, and im- 
mediately. Well aware am I that there is a stupid 
and shiftless, spendthrift class of poor who can not 
be expected to gain by any suggestion. 

Poverty and the Poor. 
Poverty is a condition in which people need mon- 
ey and property; and must be treated as a matter 
of finance and mathematics. It is a practical math- 
ematical problem that concerns every man who is 
not financially able to own a comfortable home. It 
is not so much a question as to what a man's sal- 
ary is; no, it is a question as to how he can save 
a part of his earnings. Very small savings will 
make a man rich. A poor man who sneers at the 
suggestion of savings of pennies and nickels will 
stay poor, unless somebody gives him money or 
property — to squander. 

One of Two Things. 

From a correct and scientific view, it is clearly 

manifest that poor people, to be sure of bettering 

their financial condition, must do one or the other 

of two things — either raise their valuation of money 



2i 4 NATURE AND MAN. 

or lower their valuation of costly amusements, games, 
luxuries, and unnecessary things. They must put 
their valuations on all unnecessary things down — way 
down — so low in their own estimation as to induce 
them to consider that their money is of greater 
value and quit buying the unnecessary things; or 
put their valuation on money so much higher than 
it now is that they will esteem it of greater value 
than the unnecessary things at their commercial 
prices, and hold their money for better investment. 
I am making no suggestions for the rich man; he 
does not need to economize. It is very probable he 
did economize years ago. Now no luxury is ex- 
travagant for his home. And the poor man and 
wife who will talk together sensibly on the subject 
of economy and each heartily agree with the other 
to study for and practise strict economy in all mat- 
ters — they, too, after a few years, may have no 
need longer to economize. Oh, how great will be 
their reward for sensible, wise self-denials while they 
were young and pretty and happy without wasting 
their earnings, as did many of their neighbors, who, 
when old, stooped, and gray, will be drudging, toil- 
ing, to pay house rent to a landlord, who, like other 
wise people, put a high valuation on money and 
saved the pennies, nickels, and dimes (when he was 
young and poor), and now is rich. 

If money were valued by poor people at its full 
worth in buying staples and necessary things, they 
would not part with it — spend it — for games, amuse- 
ments, luxuries, for unnecessary things, while they 
live in rented houses and maybe owe grocery or 
other bills. 

Can Reduce Average Expenses. 
It is a positive fact that nearly every man or 
woman can reduce his or her average daily ex- 
penses without a particle of injury to either. In 



NATURE AND MAN. 215 

fact, if men and women will discontinue some of the 
expenditures of money and time that I could men- 
tion, there will be fewer headaches, better health, 
and gray hairs and premature old age will not come 
so rapidly. Well, if a husband and wife will talk 
up this most necessary matter of greater economy 
(let it be mutual — in love and harmony) and dis- 
continue as many expenses as each can, the time 
will come when they both will rejoice that they did 
so. A saving of fifteen cents a day, put at five 
per cent interest or so invested as to make five per 
cent, will increase, in ten years, to about seven 
hundred dollars; twenty cents a day, more than 
nine hundred dollars in ten years; and twenty-five 
cents a day, nearly twelve hundred dollars; thirty- 
five cents a day, over sixteen hundred dollars in 
ten years. Are these large amounts, resulting from 
small average daily savings, worthy your attention ? 
Study the article preceding this; the estimates are 
correct. 



NATURE AND MAN. 217 

MENTAL CAPITAL. 



THREE IMPORTANT KINDS. 



Authors And Book-Banks— Need of Mental Cap- 
ital Embarrassing — A Right Mental Founda- 
tion — Good And Bad Character of Books — An 
Infidel A Robber — Need of Mental Business 
Capital — Write A Test Letter — Nature No Sys- 
tem of Equality — A Mental Ladder of Illus- 
trations — Kicking Against Nature — Not Too 
Pessimistic — A Giant or A Pigmy, Which? — 
Climbing Evidence of Merit — Want Money And 
Pleasure — From Childhood Homes to Gradua- 
tion — Different Kinds of Mental Capital — 
Mental Business And Social Capital — Magic 
Power of Moral Capital— Love, Not Knowledge, 
Governs — How to Develop Moral Capital — 
Moral Capital the National Need — Corruption 

Restrains Ministers And Others — A Pig- 
my And A Stalwart — Mr. A And 

Two Politicians — Look Up 
And Keep Climbing. 

By mental capital I mean all valuable knowledge 
obtained verbally from parents and teachers, by 
reading and the study of books, and by personal 
thought, investigation, and experience; such knowl- 
edge, being in mind, is mental — not of matter or 
tangible material, as is visible capital in money, 
lands, merchandise, etc. 

Useful mental knowledge, though invisible to 
one's natural eyes, is mental capital and as real, nec- 
essary, and useful in connection with the transaction 
of business, secular, domestic, and social affairs, as is 
money and property capital, and an important part 
of a person's capital worth. Therefore, in estimating 
a man's real worth in all his capitals, both of visible 



218 NATURE AND MAN. 

material and mind, we must not fail to measure his 
knowledge and worth in three branches or sorts of 
mental capital, as well as his capital in money and 
other visible property, to ascertain his resources and 
their nature. 

Educational and instructive books, being reposi- 
tories of knowledge, are, as it were, banks of mental 
capital, but far more generous in their distribution of 
knowledge than money-banks are in the distribution 
of money, in that any person able to read can draw 
on a book and obtain knowledge (more valuable than 
money) without first making a deposit, which usually 
is necessary before drawing on a bank of money. 
Perceive, one only draws or checks out the amount 
of money that first he puts into a money-bank; but 
he may obtain an inestimable amount of mental 
capital (knowledge) from a book-bank in which he 
has made no deposit. 

Authors And Book-Banks. 

Many scholarly men of active, thinking, studious, 
investigating, analytical minds (now authors) studied 
the subjects of their books and acquired valuable 
knowledge, not during daytime only, but many 
hours while thousands of their subsequent readers 
were sleeping and unaware of the fact that while they 
slept other minds, needing rest, but too intent on 
producing valuable book-banks, were up and busy 
at mental work on subjects and manuscripts for 
books which, in time, they would read and obtain 
useful and valuable mental capital. 

There are no nights so cold or so short that a 
studious author will not get up at any hour, either 
before or after a nap, to record a new thought that he 
believed valuable to the public, lest it escape from 
his mind; and, after a first nap and his mind clear and 
active, it is not uncommon to stay up one, two, or 
three hours while other people sleep. 



NATURE AND MAN. 219 

Useful knowledge is a sort of capital even more 
valuable and in many cases more needed than money- 
capital; it is a sort of capital useful to boys, girls, 
men, and women, whether in private life, business, 
a profession, or in society and the pursuit of pleas- 
ure; and, too, it is a sort of capital which one must 
obtain largely from books or do without, as it is not 
inherited as money and property, and it cannot be 
borrowed from a friend, or hired at a money-bank as 
can money-capital. 

The possession of large money and property- 
capital inherited from a relative or friend is very little 
or no evidence of merit in its possessor; but the pos- 
session of large mental capital is an unmistakable evi- 
dence of merit, as no person acquires large mental 
capital without meritorious will, energy, and effort. 

Need of Mental Capital Embarrassing. 

A large per cent of people know by sad experiences 
how distressingly inconvenient it is to get along with- 
out a liberal supply of money, and there are many 
thousands of men and women who neglected to learn 
at schools and at home during many favorable op- 
portunities of short periods of unoccupied time, dur- 
ing which they could have acquired from books a 
large amount of useful and needed knowledge ; they 
know, too, by equally sad experiences, that it is dis- 
tressingly inconvenient and embarrassing to get 
along in any respectable business or profession or in 
the society of educated people without a liberal sup- 
ply of such mental capital as they could have obtained 
from books during their wasted opportunities. 

Young men and young women, the time that 
many thousands of you are wasting at games of cards, 
baseball, and other profitless amusements are the 
favorable opportunities during which you could and 
ought to be reading educational and instructive 
books, biographies, etc., obtaining such mental capi- 



220 NATURE AND MAN. 

tal as many of you seriously need to qualify you for 
greater usefulness, both to yourselves and others; 
more information and useful knowledge would give 
you more self-respect, save you from many embar- 
rassments, and command for you far more respect 
from the class of people whose respect you ought 
to appreciate than you now have. 

And as to the successful use of money-capital: 
as a general rule, a man's business affairs are small or 
large in proportion to his money-capital; but in any 
case, to be successful financially one's mental capital 
must not be smaller, but ought to be larger, than his 
money-capital — in other words, a man may not ex- 
pect to succeed in the use of a money-capital that is 
far larger than his mental business capital. As 
money is blind, deaf, stupid, senseless, cold, and 
heartless, mental capital needs to be much the larger 
to govern and manage rightly the money-capital. 

The lessons taught by the foregoing facts are 
to avoid mental embarrassment and be prepared and 
qualified to manage large money-capital, one must 
first obtain large mental business-capital, but not 
from the false and frivolous stories called " novels " — 
the imaginations and money-making concoctions of 
strained- and perverted minds. Such books, while 
their sales make money for their authors, mislead, 
corrupt, and intoxicate the minds of their readers as 
really as whisky intoxicates the brains of topers and 
drunkards. But, more than this, the habitual read- 
ing and gloating and meditating over the false and 
extravagant stories of such books destroy their read- 
ers' respect for and love of truth as being better than 
falsehood; and, psychologically, when love of truth is 
weak or gone, love of honesty, virtue, chastity, and 
honor is correspondingly weak. 

A Right Mental Foundation. 

When one is going to build a house that will stand 



NATURE AND MAN. 221 

erect and not become warped and twisted out of 
proper shape, he first selects the material most suita- 
ble for a substantial, enduring foundation on which 
the house is to stand. Mental capital is a mental 
structure, as real as if it were of stone and of far 
greater importance to its owner than any house that 
he ever will build; therefore, greater care should 
be used to build it on a right and lasting mental 
foundation 

I have said in other pages that things mental or 
of mind, as well as things material or of matter, 
have their underlying foundations, which may be as 
unreliable as a false and slanderous representation of 
the true character of a virtuous man or woman, or 
based on truth and as reliable and solid as a founda- 
tion of marble. 

The foundation for mental capital that is to be of 
great value to its owner must be built on an under- 
lying mental foundation as solid as rock; a founda- 
tion laid and established in one's mind and affections, 
as firm and strong as mental granite. It must be a 
foundation of inspiring moral love of right, supported 
and defended by antagonistic hatred of wrong. 
Such love and hatred, based on the beautiful and 
adorable principles of morality, known and intelli- 
gently and lovingly accepted and firmly established in 
one's mind, will make an underlying mental founda- 
tion as solid as the rock of Gibraltar. Mental cap- 
ital, accumulated in accord and harmony with the 
principles of morality and piled, as it were, upon a 
platform of this sort, will recognize the common 
brotherhood of all mankind, and be used not more 
for the accumulation of money and property than to 
promote the best interests of humanity. 

Any principle or rule of conduct that accords 
with right and promotes human welfare is a principle 
and law of morality, and any conduct or deed in 
harmony with a principle of this sort is right mor- 
ally. (See Laws of Morality, this book.) 



222 NATURE AND MAN. 

There will be no misuse of mental capital built on 
a foundation of the principles of morality, and its 
possessor, though he may not accumulate a large 
money-capital, will be far happier than men of 
larger money-capital obtained by dishonest schemes 
in violation of the standard principles of right — the 
laws of morality. 

Books Possess Character. 

Any book or newspaper that discusses questions 
of morality possesses character. The moral or im- 
moral character of a book or newspaper, parts of 
which concern questions about moral laws, is as real 
and as influential for good or evil as that of people. 
The character of a book is not likely to be better 
than the character of its author, and the character 
of a newspaper is not better than the character of the 
men who control it. 

Because an immoral book or newspaper has very 
great power to corrupt the minds of its readers, the 
honest searcher for clean, moral, undefiled mental 
capital ought to reject all such literature. 

Books for boys and girls ought to be selected by 
persons governed by large moral capital to keep them 
from reading any book of bad or doubtful character, 
as any boy or girl is in very close association with 
the mind and spirit of the author while reading and 
therefore would be corrupted if the book were im- 
moral. As illustrating this fact of association, a few 
years ago I was introduced to a minister in Gales- 
burg, 111., who said to me, "I was with you an hour 
last night." In answer, I asked, "Where were you 
with me?" and he replied, "I was reading one of 
your books." 

An Infidel A Robber. 

In selecting books, I would include, as of bad 
character, wrong, and immoral, all infldelic books 



NATURE AND MAN. 223 

and papers, because such works strike not only at a 
system of morality that does a vast amount of good 
promoting human welfare, but also are designed to 
keep people from becoming Christian, and to con- 
fuse and rob others who are sincerely Christian of 
their belief and faith in Christ and His promises, 
which is a robbery and deprivation unequaled in any 
case of robbery of money and property. 

The Christian's belief and faith, based on Christ's 
promises as they are recorded in the New Testament, 
is, that there will be a final resurrection of the dead 
and a reunion of loved and precious ones in Heaven, 
where there will be joy and no sorrow or separation. 
Wonderful, marvelous promises! And who knows 
that there is not more pleasure in a Christian's faith 
and hope than a man can get out of the use of any 
amount of money and property that a robber could 
take from him? 

Low, corrupt, and demoralizing are the influences 
of an author and his writings that tend to undermine 
and weaken Christian faith and hope without offer- 
ing any other system of morality that is clearly 
better than that of Christianity. 

O infidel! Do you tell me that I shall never 
again see, face to face, and talk with my precious 
ones, who, though they died years ago, yet are as 
fresh in my memory and love as if I had seen them 
but yesterday, do you, infidel ? Do you tell me that 
that intelligent, sincere, loving, praying, faithful, 
hopeful mother is never again to see me? Or that 
my earnest, honest, conscientious, manly, and Chris- 
tian son George, and that devoted, loving daughter 
Olive, and oh! so many others — loved brothers, sis- 
ters, and friends — are never, never again to see each 
other, face to face, where we shall talk of the past 
and enjoy the future, do you, infidel ? Ah, then away, 
away! Be gone, be gone far away, with all your cru- 
el, degrading, depressing, hope-destroying infidelity! 



224 NATURE AND MAN. 

Need of Mental Business Capital. 

There are many thousands of young and middle- 
aged men and women employed in business pursuits 
— arts, trades, stores, offices, etc., many of them 
graduates from the "high schools," who cannot 
write a letter of one hundred words without violating 
one or more of the established rules for correct cap- 
italization, spelling, grammar, and punctuation; not 
only is their knowledge of these branches of mental 
capital too limited, but also their knowledge and 
command of suitable words, such as would most 
clearly and forcefully express their ideas and senti- 
ments. Many are poor penmen and deficient in 
other common and useful branches of knowledge 
needful to round up their mental capital. These 
people ought to obtain and make a successful study 
of standard school-books, including all the branches 
necessary to practical education, and especially in- 
clude spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctua- 
tion; and by no means neglect the thorough study of 
grammar — knowledge which any person can and 
ought to use as often as he or she is engaged in con- 
versation or writing. And while there are more 
than one hundred thousand words in Webster's Un- 
abridged Dictionary to select from, yet only a small 
per cent of the people know the meaning of and use 
words enough to rightly and fluently express their 
thoughts in conversation or writing Until you have 
at your command a large and comprehensive assort- 
ment of words, carry a pocket memorandum-book 
and when reading write in it any words the precise 
meaning of which you do not know, leaving a blank 
space below each to be filled in with the correct defi- 
nitions when you have a dictionary at hand. See to 
it that you have a good dictionary — a dollar or dollar 
and twenty-five cent book, and make very frequent 
use of it, and later in your lifetime you will perceive 



NATURE AND MAN. 225 

that your dictionary was one of your best invest- 
ments. Learn the meaning and correct pronunciation 
of every word in this book, as all are in common use 
in books, magazines, and newspapers. The coat- 
pocket memorandum-book I consider better than a 
small pocket dictionary, which is too small to be 
very useful . 

Nearly any person of sound mind, will, ambition, 
and energy can take up out of schools the study of 
any one or all the books I have mentioned and ob- 
tain a thorough, practical knowledge of each during 
unoccupied minutes or periods of time, whether 
short or long, not occupied by the work of one's em- 
ployment, occupation, trade, or profession — min- 
utes or hours before, during, and after a day's work. 
Useful knowledge (mental capital) obtained during 
such periods has, in many thousands of cases, quali- 
fied men and women to ascend the ladder of knowl- 
edge, on and on, upward to the most desirable occu- 
pations, trades, and professions. 

Take notice: one minute a day wasted in any 
way amounts to one school-day of six hours in one 
year; ten minutes a day to ten school-days of six 
hours each in one year; and one hour a day in one 
year amounts to sixty school -days of six hours each 
in one year, or nearly three months' schooling, as a 
school month is usually only twenty-one days of six 
hours each. Perceive, less than one hour a day de- 
voted to the diligent study of instructive books will 
soon qualify an illiterate man or woman to fill busi- 
ness and social positions of responsibility requiring 
good scholarship. 

Write A Test Letter. 

When a son or daughter can sit down and, with- 
out a book or other aid, compose and write a compo- 
sition or letter of two hundred words without making 
a mistake either in the choice of suitable words or 



226 NATURE AND MAN. 

otherwise, he or she is entitled, by the proof of 
mental capital furnished in such composition, wheth- 
er it be of a business, social, or moral character, to a 
position of honor on the ladder of knowledge above 
the sixty-fifth step. 

There are many thousands of girls and women 
who, though skillful at instrumental music, cannot 
compose a letter of one hundred words without 
making a mistake showing serious need of mental 
capital. If the time which these girls have devoted 
to learning music had been spent studying such 
school-books as I have mentioned, they would pos- 
sess far more mental capital and be far, far more at- 
tractive to educated people. Thousands of these 
musicians cannot carry on a social conversation for a 
few minutes without showing far too much ignor- 
ance of noted people and important things and 
events. 

The drum, though quite void of knowledge, is a 
very noisy thing, and I often have noticed that the 
same is true of many human heads — they, too, were 
empty or void of useful knowledge, yet very noisy at 
an organ or piano. 

Young men, young women, wake up! Stir up 
your slumbering spirits, and display that ever- 
admirable spirit, ambition, will, and energy for get- 
ting useful knowledge that will not down, but keep 
climbing. Don't be content to get along with the 
use of only one or two thousand words, as many 
people are doing. Don't be mental pigmies, satis- 
fied to get along in a stupid and ignorant way with- 
out a liberal supply of the three distinct kinds of 
mental capital analyzed in some of the following 
pages of this article. You can search books and ob- 
tain from them the amount of mental capital that 
will entitle you to a position among the giants, or 
you can waste time reading trashy love-tale novels, 
at card-tables, or yelling like uncivilized Indians at 



NATURE AND MAN. 227 

games of baseball and other amusements, and be 
an ignorant pigmy, as many thousands are who 
wast^ their opportunities for self-improvement. 
Whether you win idle away or waste at worthless 
amusements your opportunities suitable for reading, 
or be busy obtaining useful knowledge (which is 
mental capital), depends upon the quality of your 
mind, as no law or influence can make and enforce 
either physical or mental equality of intellect, en- 
ergy, and worth of men and women, and there is no 
equality; and no person gets more mental capital 
than his measure of intelligence insoires him to 
work for. 

Nature No System of Equality. 

Nature presents no system of equality among the 
species, either in size, weight, strength, value, or ca- 
pacity, whether physical or mental, but great giants 
and small pigmies of every species, whether mineral, 
vegetable, animal, mental, or spiritual. Humanity 
is one of the species, and may be regarded both as 
animal, mental, and spiritual, and as a production of 
Nature, since the creation of Adam and Eve by the 
great Creator. And it is because the descendants of 
Adam and Eve are productions of Nature in accord 
with the Creator's physical and mental laws decreed 
to govern His agencies in their reproduction of the 
human species that infants inherit from their parents 
as many peculiarities of mind as of body, and are 
naturally as' unequal mentally in intellect, will, and 
energy as either the trees or the animals of the 
forests are physically. And as the sins of corrupt 
and wicked parents are ''visited" or inflicted upon 
their children down to the third and fourth genera- 
tion (not for thousands of years), therefore there are 
many thousands, yea, millions, of men and women 
who are very nearly as unspiritual, coarse, unrefined, 
and anht'al as the four-legged, long-eared donkey of 



228 NATURE AND MAN. 

the farm; while, on the other hand, there are multi- 
tudes of men and women whose minds, affections, 
and love are so purified and refined by their love of 
virtue and hatred of vice that they are as unlike the 
former class as though they were an entirely differ- 
ent species. And parental neglect in the childhood 
homes to incite, develop, and cultivate controlling 
moral love in the minds of their small children is the 
cause, in the larger per cent of cases, of this shameful 
corruption and degradation of a large per cent of 
people of one and the same species. 

But of the vast multitudes of people there are 
millions who naturally are neither mental giants nor 
little pigmies in intellect, energy, or otherwise; there- 
fore let me illustrate, by the use of the rungs or steps 
of a mental ladder, the wide range of differences in the 
amounts of natural mental ability inherited and of 
mental business capital, mental social capital, and 
mental moral capital possessed by different persons, 
thus: 

A Mental Ladder Illustration. 

Picture in your mind a mental ladder — let us call 
it the Ladder of Knowledge; a ladder of one hun- 
dred and twenty-five rungs or steps. One of these in 
every home, school or school-room; that all the peo- 
ple (parents, students, sons, and daughters) are en- 
titled by their learning to a position somewhere on 
a ladder of knowledge — the greater one's useful 
knowledge the higher the step to which he or she is 
entitled. Any intermediate step above the lowest 
represents a degree of learning (of mental capital) 
greater than that of a person at the lowest step, and 
therefore is a position of merit; and the higher up the 
steps the greater is one's mental capital and merit, 
because each higher position on the ladder is evi- 
dence of commendable enery and effort necessary 
to get there. All humanity starts from the lowest 



NATURE AND MAN. 229 

step of the ladder, and all who do not climb up to the 
thirtieth step belong to the lowest class of mental 
pigmies, who are people whose intellectual capacity 
and mental attainments range in amounts from the 
lowest and most inferior upw T ard to capacity and at- 
tainments only a trifle below the mediocre. People 
who stay at and near the lowest steps are pigmies of 
the lowest class — most inferior minds, fewest useful 
mental attainments, and but little or no moral cap- 
ital; the larger per cent of these do labor requiring 
the smallest amount of skill. 

From the thirtieth step and on upward to the 
sixty-fourth step are a higher grade of pigmies, peo- 
ple who possess some of each: mental business cap- 
ital, mental social capital, and mental moral capital, 
and are employed, many as wage-earners and others 
at many respectable occupations. .As to moral cap- 
ital, there is as much morality among these people 
per capita as among the giants at and above the one- 
hundredth step. But even those of this better and 
more intelligent class of pigmies are so well satisfied 
each with himself that he feels but little or no desire 
for knowledge, reads very few or no instructive books, 
and is ignorant beyond the narrow confines and limits 
of such knowledge as he has of his business or occu- 
pation; and yet many of these accumulate consider- 
able money and property capital. 

From the sixty-fifth step and upward to the 
eighty-fourth step are the mediocrities — a class of peo- 
ple possessing the full average amount of intellect 
and knowledge and more than the average, as they 
climb upw r ard to the eighty-fourth step. These are 
the people w T ho, in about all the various activi- 
ties of common industry, as skilled wage-earners, 
school-teachers, artisans, mechanics, miners, book- 
keepers, sales-people, farmers, bankers, merchants, 
lawyers, doctors, and others, do the larger part of 
the business that is done with the masses. While 



2 3 o NATURE AND MAN. 

the people at higher steps in the great ladder of 
knowledge are more scholarly, yet as no amount of 
learning not specifically moral makes any scholar 
better, there is as much morality among equal 
numbers of men and women below the eighty-fourth 
step as above it. 

From the eighty-fifth step on upward to the one- 
hundredth step are a people whom I denominate 
(call) stalwarts; a class of strong minds, of great en- 
ergy, and large mental business capital, and, quite 
generally, enough social capital. These, many of 
them, are managers of large money capital and con- 
ducting vast business concerns — commercial and 
manufacturing, etc. 

From the one-hundredth step and on upward are 
the mighty people whom I call mental giants: a peo- 
ple of very great natural intellectual capacity and 
vast mental business capital; and here, as below, 
mental capital continues to increase as the giants 
climb the high ladder of knowledge, on and on up- 
ward to the pinnacle of knowledge and world-wide 
fame. Belonging to this class (mental giants) are 
the great and distinguished educators of the big col- 
leges and universities, noted ministers of the gospel, 
eminent lawyers, judges of higher courts, State gov- 
ernors, representatives and senators, Presidents of the 
United States, Cabinet officers, senators and repre- 
sentatives in Congress, di:^tingu"shed financiers, and 
managers of mighty corporations, etc. 

All the people entitled to a position on the ladder 
of knowledge above the one-hundredth step are edu- 
cated — men and women of large natural and acquir- 
ed mental business capital and mental social capital. 
But alas! alas! not nearly all are giants in moral 
capital. They all possess ample knowledge of what 
is right and what is wrong morally, but in many cases 
it is knowledge without a moral foundation of love 
of mental purity and righteousness. 



NATURE AND MAN. 231 

Kicking Against Nature. 

Perceive, as there is no more equality, either 
natural or attained, in the vast forests of men and 
mind than in the forests of trees and animals, there- 
fore any man who frets and grumbles as some do 
about the unequalizing system of civil government, 
the inequality of people, and the unequal distribu- 
tion of money and property, is opposing conditions 
that are far more nearly natural than abnormal; and 
as to mental, social, and moral equality, no such 
condition ever did or ever will prevail. Philosoph- 
ically, present conditions are quite natural and will 
so continue while so large a per cent of the people are 
without governing moral capital and scoff, as they 
now do, at the sacred principles of morality and care 
far more for the comfort of their bodies than for the 
purity of their minds. 

Not Too Pessimistic 

Pessimism, when it stands for the truth, is far 
better than optimism when it stands for error. 
Some people, being far more optimistic than philo- 
sophical, will think that I am too pessimistic; but 
more extensive knowledge of the wide extent of 
mental corruption and the general prevalence of need 
of moral capital would convince some of the optimists 
that I am not too pessimistic when I say emphat- 
ically that the now prevalent corrupt mental con- 
ditions — dishonesty, greed, and lust — will continue 
and grow worse so long as a very large per cent of the 
people ignore and oppose moral laws and resist first 
their passage and then their enforcement, as they 
now do. Optimism — the opinion that everything is 
for the best — is very dangerous when it misleads, 
deceives, and disarms people, as often it has done. 
It sometimes is like saying to a man dangerously 
near a coiled rattlesnake, "Keep still! keep still! 



232 NATURE AND MAN. 

don't move; it means no harm," until the snake has 
struck and thrust its deadly poisoned fangs deep 
into one of the man's legs. 

Not before there comes a general nation-wide and 
broad moral awakening of slumbering, parents, stir- 
ring, stimulating, and inspiring them to give their 
children a full three-thirds education, will there be any 
substantial reform of the grossly immoral conditions 
now prevailing in the United States. No amount of 
school and college education, without having been 
preceded by a thorough, systematic, specific moral 
education, is more than a two-thirds education — or 
education minus love of morality. 

A Giant or Pigmy — Which? 

Nature having endowed one with a fairly good 
mind, it is his duty to climb, starting from the bot- 
tom or lowest step of the ladder of knowledge, as 
every great mental giant of past and present times 
has done. Which will you be, a powerful giant and 
leader and benefactor of weaker men, or a weak, ig- 
norant, insignificant, and uninfluential pigmy? If 
you decide to be a giant, and much depends upon 
your decision, aim high. First, decide firmly that 
you will climb, and then aim high, as no one is likely 
to get up higher than he aims. A person who feels 
no more desire and ambition for self-improvement 
than a monkey is pretty sure never to excel a 
monkey; and one who has little or no inspiration to 
climb to steps far above those occupied by the pig- 
mies very likel} will make pigmies his whole life- 
time associates, as birds of a feather will flock 
together. 

Young men and young women of inferior minds 
will say that they must have amusement and will 
spend their opportunities for needed personal self- 
improvement at dances, card-tables, baseball, and 
other games and sports, while others of superior 



NATURE AND MAN. 233 

minds are getting what to them is satisfactory 
amusement in reading and studying instructive 
books, and after a very few years will be out of sight — 
away above those who sought sports and pleasure 
while their superiors sought and obtained useful 
knowledge. 

Climbing Evidence of Merit. 

While not all can be giants, yet it is a low, 
coarse, inferior, animal or souse-head mind that is 
willing to stay down, away down with the lower order 
of pigmies, as both the thoughts and the affections 
of such minds are correspondingly low, coarse, and 
animal-like. But it is an evidence of merit, and a 
big credit to one's intellect and energy, to have 
climbed to high steps in the great ladder of knowl- 
edge, an evidence and proof of mental merit under 
any circumstances, but an especially large credit to 
a person who, unaided by the money and influences 
of devoted parents or other friends, works his or her 
way up the steps of this high ladder of knowledge, 
even to a step and position up among the stalwarts 
of mind, will, decision, energy, and mental capital. 

Ah! lock up, behold, young men and women. 
High up among the stalwarts and giants are a mul- 
titude of men and women — many yet unknown 
either to the general public or the nation — who, 
while very poor and struggling for necessary cloth- 
ing, bread, and knowledge (mental capital) and un- 
aided by devoted friends, but inspired by uncon- 
querable will-power, ambition, and energy, worked 
and ascended, slowly but surely, one step at a time, 
to positions on the ladder even above the one-hun- 
dredth step — yea, away up yonder among the giants 
of learning. Ah! young men and young women, are 
mental capital and the advantages and profits to be 
gained by its use worth working for ? Seeing that oth- 
ers have worked their way up the ladder, why not you ? 



234 NATURE AND MAN. 

One may stand under a tree loaded with the most 
delicious, luscious, ripe peaches, but he must look up 
and reach up to get them; so, too, of the good things 
that feed and delight one's mental appetite — the in- 
numerable pleasures that come to a person of strong 
mental capital. One must look up, reach up, and 
climb from step to step and keep reaching up for the 
mental peaches; the higher one reaches the better 
they are. But there are juicy and luscious mental 
fruits other than peaches; higher up are plums, 
pears, and cherries, with cream and sugar. So keep 
climbing. 

Behold, men and women, when people need com- 
petent persons to fill desirable positions that com- 
mand pleasing salaries, they look up , away up the lad- 
der of useful knowledge, and choose persons who have 
been climbing. 

Want Money And Pleasure. 

While the vastly larger per cent of the people 
make desperate and slavish efforts to accumulate 
money and property capital, and send their boys 
and girls to schools and colleges to better prepare 
them also to make money, yet their greatest love is 
the excessive, abnormal, carnal, and degrading love 
of pleasure, which they erroneously expect to gain 
by the use of money and property; in fact, it is not 
nearly so much the love of money and property as it 
is the love of such enjoyments as they expect to 
derive from the use of property and money that 
stimulates and inspires the people to the unnatural 
and desperate struggles that are being made and said 
to be for money. In proof that it is not so much for 
money as it is for pleasure that the strugglers expect 
to gain in having the things that money will buy, 
behold how freely the rich part with many thou- 
sands of dollars for a diamond, a pretty cloak, or for 
an evening social! 



NATURE AND MAN. 235 

Childhood Homes To Graduation. 

Sons and daughters urged on through schools 
and colleges climb high up the ladder of knowledge, 
getting a large supply of mental business capital and 
of mental social capital, and knowledge enough of 
what is right and what is wrong morally; but they 
went out from their childhood homes to school with- 
out love of righteousness (which is moral capital), 
and, obtaining none at schools and colleges, they 
graduate without a dime's worth. I tell the scien- 
tific psychological truth when I say that knowledge 
of right and wrong is not moral capital — not love of 
right and hatred of wrong. They went without in- 
spiring moral love from their childhood homes, and 
later they graduated from schools and colleges with- 
Qut any such love. Finally, through schools and 
colleges, and engaged in some occupation, and sup- 
plied with money from parents, inherited or may be 
obtained by immoral business methods in office or 
elsewhere, they marry, expecting to reap a big and 
ceaseless harvest of pleasure. But alas! After get- 
ting the education — the mental business capital, the 
social capital, the money capital, and the wives — ah! 
when it is far too late for mothers and fathers to take 
them upon their knees and teach love of righteous- 
ness and hatred of wrong — yea, when too late, too 
late for the parental duty that belongs to the child- 
hood home — then they learn that their wealth with- 
out controlling moral capital will neither bring nor 
buy enduring and satisfactory peace and pleasure, 
as is shown and proven by the many court records 
in New York city and in other places of numerous 
divorce suits brought by people of school, college, 
and university education — people of large mental 
business capital, social capital, and money and prop- 
erty capital. Such records are abundant proof that 
the enjoyments and pleasures obtained by the use of 



236 NATURE AND MAN. 

property and money without moral capital are more 
unsatisfactory than the enjoyments and pleasures of 
the poor men and women possessing large moral 
capital, who, because of need of money and property, 
have to work hard daily for shelter, clothing, and 
bread. These truths, too, are proof that there is a 
vast amount of energy and work wasted in the strug- 
gle for pleasure vainly expected to come by the use 
of large money and property capital without specific 
and definite moral capital to regulate its use and the 
affections of its owners. 

The larger amount of real pleasure that an intel- 
ligent person may get out of his mental capital based 
on the principles of moral law is so great as to be in- 
comparable to the pleasures that any man can get 
by the use of money capital without moral capital. 
The man of well-founded mental capital can get 
more enjoyment reading instructive scientific, his- 
toric, and biographical books than the average busi- 
ness man gets excluding books and working for 
property, and whose greatest pleasure comes to him 
when he is too sound asleep to be perplexed by his 
slavish anxiety to make money. And another im- 
portant consideration is, that mental capital, unlike 
money and property, cannot be stolen, but will stick 
and stay with its owner so long as he lives — always 
at hand and ready for use, and may, if rightly 
founded, accompany its owner into a world and life 
beyond the grave. It is not at all likely that the 
redeemed will be deprived of knowledge in the future 
state; but hark! hear the poor skeptic and the hope- 
less infidel murmur, "Speculation." But let the 
people who believe in the prophecies of a future life 
beyond the grave also believe that their positions on 
the ladder of knowledge will not be lower in the 
future state in the case of anyone whose mental cap- 
ital is based on the holy principles of morality and 
governed by moral capital or love of righteousness. 



NATURE AND MAN. 237 

Different Kinds of Mental Capital 

In the world of mind, as in the world of matter, 
there are several kinds of mental capital, each dif- 
fering from another as widely as does capital in ma- 
terial or matter; and as of capital in matter, so too 
of mental capital — some kinds are far more useful 
than others. The more useful of the different kinds 
or elements of mental capital may be classed as be- 
longing with one or another of three kinds: 

First — Mental Business Capital, which is knowl- 
edge of an alphabet, words, spelling, pronunciation, 
meaning, reading, writing, capitalization, punctua- 
tion, grammar, figures, arithmetic, geography, his- 
tory, mechanics, art, science, law, medicine, theology, 
etc.; this knowledge, being important and useful in 
one or another sort of business, is mental business 
capital. 

Second — Mental Social Capital, which is knowl- 
edge of fashionable etiquette, of good manners, of 
vocal and instrumental music, of people, of politics, 
politicians, and political newspaper gossip, of current 
events, of town and country happenings, of men and 
women and what they are doing, of society, clubs, 
games, parties, dances, church festivals, of theatres 
and theatrical people, etc.; knowledge of any or all 
of these things, being useful in society and social con- 
versation, is mental social capital. 

Third — Mental Moral Capital, which is active, 
stimulating, inspiring love of all the elements of 
morality, love of all the principles and rules of 
thought and conduct that tend to increase and pro- 
tect purity of mind and conduct; sincere, stimulat- 
ing, inspiring love of honesty, truthfulness, mental 
purity, chastity, loyalty, and fidelity; in short, act- 
ive, living love of righteousness and humanity 
moral capital. 

Take notice and forget it not: no amount of 



238 NATURE AND MAN. 

knowledge of equity or right and wrong without love 
of righteousness is moral capital. The proof that 
one possesses and is governed by moral love is his 
hatred of wrong. Active, inspiring, moral love always 
engenders equally active hatred of wrong; therefore, 
everyone who really loves morality and its restraints 
hates immorality and its system of license to do 
wrong. 

Mental Business And Social Capital. 

Neither mental business capital nor mental social 
capital have any moral and refining influences and 
do not incline their possessors to mental purity, as 
neither of these capitals include love of moral laws. 
But as all humanity is governed mainly by love 
(moral or immoral), therefore the possessors of 
mental business capital and mental social capital 
without moral capital are under the influences and 
governed mainly by love of money, property, dress, 
show, and pleasure — by immoral love, and not at all 
by love of what is right as seen from the moral view- 
point. Could we see mental capital (moral love) 
with our eyes as we see money and property capital, 
we surely would see that a very large per cent of the 
people (pigmies, mediocrities, stalwarts, and giants) 
on the ladder of knowledge are very needy of moral 
capital; many of them, although possessing vast 
money and property wealth, have scarcely a dollar's 
worth of moral capital. 

While it is a psychological fact that neither ment- 
al business capital nor social capital has any moral- 
izing or refining effects upon the mind and affections 
of its possessor, yet I have heard an unphilosophical 
minister contend* that music, one of the elements of 
social capital, is refining morally; but any such con- 
tention is unscientific, contrary to the laws of mental 
science, and abundantly disproved by the comparative 
morality of any one hundred musicians compared 



NATURE AND MAN 239 

with the morality of an equal number of people who 
neither understand nor care for music. (See Right 
Ways of Feeding, page 77, this book.) 

During the centuries there has been a vast ac- 
cumulation of useful business and social capital, but 
as neither of these has any direct moral or refining 
influence or effect, many of the meanest, most li- 
centious men are vastly rich, so far as such knowl- 
edge or capital can make them, but they are desti- 
tute of moral capital, destitute of inspiring love of 
humanity and righteousness. 

As to mental social capital, there are hundreds 
of thousands of men and women of large social capi- 
tal — polite in mixed company, fluent, entertaining, 
and highly pleasing in conversation, ready singers of 
song and sacred music, many of whom play instru- 
mental music, all-around attractive, and seemingly 
faultless — who, with all their mental social capital, 
are as destitute of moral capital as the average long- 
eared donkey. They, like the skunk, are agreeable 
until crossed. One can't see what is in a skunk; 
no, nor can one see what is in the mind of any person 
not governed by moral capital; but I have investi- 
gated and tell you the truth: anything in the skunk 
is sweet and delicious compared with things in the 
mind of a person not governed by moral capital. 
Behold, their mental business capital, "good policy," 
shrewdly and easily hides their sentiments on ques- 
tions of morality, which, when exposed, are far more 
offensive to a pure mind than anything that can be 
squeezed out of a skunk. The truth is, there is not 
water enough in the Mississippi River nor soap 
enough in America to wash out any of the loathsome 
mental stains sure to result from a continued associa- 
tion along with such people. 

Magic Power of Moral Capital. 
Moral capital is a kind of wealth that no person 



240 NATURE AND MAN. 

can appreciate and recommend too highly; it is 
pure, unperverted, uncorrupted, and undented love, 
based on practical knowledge of the excellent influ- 
ences and works of the elements of morality, and 
of the damaging, hateful influences and works of the 
elements of immorality, supported and defended by 
hatred of wrong. Such love has led hundreds of 
thousands — yea, millions of men and women to lay 
down, to give up their lives for such causes as they 
sincerely believed were right. It is the unconquera. 
ble, wonderful, marvelous, magical, inspiring, price 
less mental jewel, under whose mighty influences 
many millions of loyal women have, during the ages, 
given up their husbands, sons, and brothers to go 
and hazard their lives in defense of a country or 
cause that they loved; and it was love that induced 
the husbands, sons, and brothers to shoulder arms 
and endure distressing hardships to defend govern- 
ments that they loved. While the governments and 
causes for which they fought may not all have been 
right morally, yet what they did serves to illustrate 
the mighty influences and marvelously great power 
of love; and, as love is equally powerful, whether 
moral or immoral, whether it be right or wrong, 
their sacrifices also show the inestimable importance 
of love being based on moral laws, as it will govern, 
whether right or wrong. All along, away, way down 
the centuries, love has constrained and still is con- 
straining millions of poor but heroic parents to sac- 
rifice themselves by ceaseless over-work, toil, and 
personal privations while they bravely struggled to 
provide shelter, clothing, food, and schooling for 
their loved children. 

Yea, verily, such is the admirable character and 
irresistible magic power of moral capital, of love 
based on moral laws. Ah! it is love of undefiled hu- 
manity and righteousness, of universal justice, and 
all the principles, rules, and restraints of moral laws; 



NATURE AND MAN. 241 

it is love of protection from and prohibition of evil 
and equal justice to all humanity. Such love is 
humanity's best capital, without which people are 
pitifully poor; and yet, owing to the cruel system of 
two-thirds education, it is the distressing need of 
millions of people of large mental business capital, 
of social capital, and of abundant money and prop- 
erty capital, many of them away up the ladder of ed- 
ucation. Look away up yonder! See them? Some 
are near the top of the ladder, but alas ! without a 
dollar's worth of moral capital. 

Love, Not Knowledge, Governs. 

Parents and teachers, take notice and accept the 
truth: No amount or variety of knowledge that can 
be obtained by the study of school-books and from 
scholarly school-teachers is moral capital; and no 
quantity or amount of knowledge will purify the 
mind and affections of any corrupt person, nor keep a 
pure young mind from perversion and gross immor- 
ality. Only a thorough, direct, specifically moral 
education will engender, cultivate, develop, and ma- 
ture strong governing moral love. Nothing else than 
love, based on and in full accord and harmony with 
moral law, will successfully fortify and defend its 
possessors against all sorts of immorality and keep 
them in harmony with righteousness. If all parents 
' would so influence the minds of their little children as 
to induce them to love all the elements and restraints, 
all the just prohibitions of morality, and fortify their 
love of morality by hatred of immorality, the time 
surely would come when there would be no use for 
courts, judges, juries, and jails. No dozen items of 
any other mental capital are nearly so valuable as 
the one item of moral capital love, seconded and sup- 
ported by its soldier-like defender, hatred of wrong, 
because they do not do so much to protect and pro- 
mote human welfare. When hatred of wrong is de- 



242 NATURE AND MAN. 

veloped along with moral love, as it ought to be, 
they cooperate, stimulate, inspire, and thoroughly 
fortify their possessors against mental corruption 
and defilement. 

How To Develop Moral Capital. 

The creation and development of moral capital 
in a child's mind is the first one-third, and, too, the 
most important and necessary third, of any education 
that can be given to a son or daughter, whether it be 
an extensive or very limited education. And it is a 
good thing, a gloriously good condition of things — 
greatly in favor of poor parents and their children, 
whose chances for obtaining knowledge are unequal 
to the chances of children of rich parents — that the 
quantity of moral capital poor boys and girls can 
possess is not limited to correspond in its amount 
with the amount of knowledge which they have ob- 
tained at school and college; instead, the poor boys 
and girls may be vastly rich in moral capital. There 
are thousands of men and women who possess but 
little knowledge obtained from books, though they 
possess great wealth in moral capital. The engen- 
dering (creating), cultivating, and developing of 
moral capital is a special work that must be done at 
the child's private home by its parents and before 
children are too large to love to sit upon the knees of 
parents and listen attentively while a parent en- 
genders, cultivates, develops, and molds its affec- 
tions and love. To engender (create) and increase 
moral capital, the good influences and works of the 
principles or elements of morality must be so cited as 
to get the child's favorable consideration, then to 
arouse its admiration, then its friendship, and later 
enkindle its affections, and still later to develop 
moral love for the laws of morality. Follow up this 
glorious work of developing the spirit of love for 
morality, strengthen and fortify it by citing and ex- 



NATURE AND MAN. 243 

plaining the bad influences and hateful works of im- 
morality — of anything wrong, as anything wrong is 
immoral — and thus create and develop hatred of 
immorality. Continue systematically the cultiva- 
tion and development of moral love by skillful cita- 
tions of the uniformly excellent influences and beau- 
tiful and loveable works of any law of morality, 
any one of which always increases and protects 
human welfare. Then cite, explain, and contrast 
the damaging, tormenting, peace- and happiness- 
destroying influences and works of immorality — 
anything wrong — to increase moral hatred of the ele- 
ments of immorality. Lead the mind of the child 
from one little lesson-talk to another until it easily 
comprehends and believes that honesty is far better 
than dishonesty, generosity than great selfishness, 
mercy than cruelty, truth than falsehood, sobriety 
and prohibition than tippling and drunkenness, vir- 
tue than vice, and love than hateful lust, which is a 
lewd, corrupt passion, based on and in accorcL with 
immorality, and as different from pure moral love as 
virtue is different from vice. (See page 82.) 

Any such development of moral capital as will 
govern and fortify the girl and boy against mental 
corruption, dishonesty, debauchery, and lust during 
their whole lifetime can only be accomplished by 
several years of ceaseless and patient, but diligent, 
persevering attention devoted to the cultivation and 
thorough development and molding of the child's 
affections, love, and hatred, as stated, and is the 
sacred work and duty of the parents of every child. 
It is the most sacred duty and work to be performed 
by parents and legal guardians, and cannot be ac- 
complished in a few months, but ought to be com- 
menced by the time a child is three or "our years 
old and continued systematically for at least eight or 
ten years, to strengthen the child's love and keep it 



244 NATURE AND MAN. 

from corruption by immoral persons at home, school, 
or elsewhere. 

As to any sort of aids to parents in this great 
work of creating, cultivating and developing moral 
love, parents must not and cannot sensibly depend 
on the churches and Sunday-schools for such work; 
nor on Christian conversion, the per cent of hu- 
manity that never is converted is so large that fu- 
ture conversion cannot be depended on without stu- 
pid, unjustifiable, and reckless hazard to the moral 
character of the child. 

Moral Capital The National Need. 

That moral capital is the distressing national 
need is self-evident, as seen in the general nation- 
wide mind impurity — mental corruption, selfishness, 
greed, dishonesty, unlimited lying, perjury, vice, 
lust and lasciviousness, manifested in the innumera- 
ble cases of fraud, forgery, extortion, hold-ups, pub- 
lic and private robbery of individuals, homes, stores, 
offices, banks, railroad passenger and express trains, 
revenues of the Government of the United States, 
postoffices, kidnaping of children for ransom, fraudu- 
lent bank failures, low, vile, sneaking disloyalty, and 
the countless and justified demands for divorces (in 
most cases the outcome of gross immorality) are not 
nearly all, but some of the natural consequences of 
mental corruption that has become national and 
is caused by weak, insufficient, and uncontrolling 
moral capital; in other words, this mental corrup- 
tion is the shameful work of men and women desti- 
tute of moral capital. And as to this condition being 
national, behold, all the men and women who are 
doing all the wrong are a considerable per cent of 
the nation, the people; and, as many of the sinners 
hold important offices to which they were elected by 
the people, they fairly represent morally a large per 
cent of the people, and the people are the nation. 



NATURE AND MAN. 245 

Corruption Restrains Ministers And Others. 

Preachers, editors, and authors are intimidated 
and restrained from duty. So general and numer- 
ous are the people of immorality, dishonesty, greed, 
vice, and lust — so general is the scarcity of moral 
capital— that in very few places a local minister, de- 
pending upon the public for support, would dare 
to announce in advance and preach a direct and 
forceful sermon against the mental and physical de- 
baucheries of the people of his community. A few 
such sermons, very likely, would cost him a consid- 
erable part of the money support so necessary to 
clothe and feed his family. Therefore the average 
minister of to-day may preach against the national 
dishonesty as loud as his lungs will allow, but he dare 
not vigorously attack the personal "bad habits" of 
the people who support him financially, nor hold 
them personally accountable to the Creator for the 
immoral influences of their bad examples before 
their own and other people's children. 

And an editor, poor fellow! though he were as 
pure and unsophisticated as a celestial angel is sup- 
posed to be, is situated much as his preacher neigh- 
bor. He, too, must not condemn (in his newspaper) 
his neighbor's faults. 

And there are authors — writers of books — who 
suffer large money losses by condemning mental 
and physical corruption and debauchery. I have 
watched and studied thousands of men while they 
were examining an influential moral book, and have 
seen hundreds of men decline to buy it because it 
condemned some personal "bad habit," when they 
knew that its good influences would be a benefit to 
their homes. But some corrupt men, more manly 
than others, did buy. One, a manly fellow, who 
noticed an article against the use of tobacco, said, 
" It hits me hard, but it is right, and I will buy one." 



246 NATURE AND MAN. 

Once I offered the book whose full title is "Man: 
Body, Mind, and Soul — Satan, Hell, and Heaven" in 
a store. It was a deep room, and only the proprietor 
was in sight. He read aloud the full, long title of the 
book, and immediately there came a clear voice from 
the rear end of the store-room, saying, "John, I '11 
bet that is a good book." It was the voice of the 
merchant's wife, who came forward, and the two 
examined and bought the book. At another store 
the proprietor threw the book down spitefully when 
he had read the title, and I, judging the man by his 
act, said to him, "You are an infidel" He replied, 
"There is the door." I retorted quickly, "Yes; and 
the infidelic atmosphere in this room is bad. Good- 
bye," and I went out. He was a Tom Paine infidel. 

A Pigmy And A Stalwart. 

Another proprietor of a small store, after an un- 
skillful examination of the book, handed it back, 
saying, "It's only somebody's opinion." His re- 
mark, which was indicative of ignorance and stu- 
pidity, reminded me of the story of a little, tiny 
gnat that was on a huge elephant's head, and said, 
"I hope that my weight will not tire your head." 
The elephant replied, "I did not even know that you 
were there." Moral: The smaller the mind of a 
pigmy the greater and more ridiculous the conceit. 

On with my work, I entered the next store, and 
presented the book to the proprietor, who, after a 
skillful examination of the title-page, index, and pre- 
face, remarked, "I will take one, as I like to get other 
people's opinions on some of those subjects." 

The truth is, that the man who ignored other 
people's opinions is an ignoramus — away, way down 
near the bottom of the ladder of knowledge, and will 
stay there, while the man who liked "to get other 
people's opinions" is a mental stalwart — away, way 



NATURE AND MAN. 247 

up the ladder, far above a mediocrity, and is still 
climbing. 

Mr. A and Two Politicians. 

As further illustrating the prevailing condition of 
mind corruption, and the awful need of moral 
mental capital, I will tell of a common occurrence: 

One day two politicians called on Mr. A , 

whose vote they desired, and during a brief conver- 
sation Mr. B , one of the politicians, compliment- 
ed Mr. A upon his honorable business methods. 

When they were off, Mr. B said to Mr. C , 

the other politician, "I suppose that you noticed 

how I nattered Mr. A ?" "Yes, I did," replied 

Mr. C . "Well," retorted Mr. B , "that 

simply was a matter of good business policy; but, in 

fact, Mr. A would solicit a mortgage on a poor 

man's home and then foreclose the mortgage and 
buy the poor man's home at sheriff's sale for one- 
quarter its value, and rejoice over his big bargain." 

Perceive, both Mr. A and the politician are 

equally dishonest. The politician showed business 
capital based on immorality, but no moral capital. 
In accord and harmony with this general scarcity of 
moral capital, a very large per cent of the people en- 
tertain little or no sincere love for the holy principles 
and rules of morality, and consider dishonest words 
and deeds as being "good business policy." 

Look Up and Keep Climbing. 

Any man in this big world of progressive arts and 
science is quite too narrow-minded who, having quit 
school or graduated from college, is satisfied with 
what he has learned, as though his head were chock 
full of knowledge. Such men, though still ignorant 
of much that would add to their mental worth, waste 
their unemployed time and make no personal im- 
provements. 



248 NATURE AND MAN. 

Young men and women who idle away their op- 
portunities for reading instructive books have lost 
their mental appetite, and ought to be seriously 
alarmed. Behold, thirty minutes' book-study a day 
equals thirty school-days of six hours each in one 
year. It were far better to aim higher — far above 
one's present mental condition — and keep climbing. 
Study " Mental Appetite and Mental Hunger" in 
this book (page 81). 

To Be Happy, Be Good. 

To be good, be* loyal to the Creator's "Govern- 
ment of Nature." No amount of money ever will 
make and keep people happy. 

The discomforting, troublesome, and tormenting 
penalties following the violation of a moral law far 
exceed any amount of pleasure obtained by the vio- 
lation; wherefore, moral people are far happier than 
the immoral. It is a truth in accord with science 
that the greatest amount of happiness comes by 
love of and hearty obedience to all the elements of 
Nature's morality, together with Christian belief and 
faith in the doctrine of a resurrection and glorious re- 
union of loved ones, and a happy life beyond the 
grave. Study "The Wonderful Government of Na- 
ture" in this book (page 13). 

A man who confines his mind to thoughts of 
property and money-making shuts out and deprives 
himself of the benefits of other thoughts and consid- 
eration, such as would bring greater happiness to 
himself and others. 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 

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